


Otp Challenge: Helmet Party

by rextexx



Series: Helmet Party [2]
Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: 30 Day OTP Challenge, AU, Arranged Marriage, Bad Pick-Up Lines, Cooking, Drunken Kissing, Flowers, Homophobic Language, Love Confessions, M/M, Spooning, Videogames, injuries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-06 06:43:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5406935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rextexx/pseuds/rextexx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles from the OTP-Challenge I do with Sfheibai on Tumblr, featuring our favorite american couple. Ratings may change! Tags to be added!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1 - First Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collection of drabbles i wrote for the 30 Day OTP Challenge you can find here: http://twilishark.tumblr.com/post/85996472203/30-days-of-otp-revamp  
> Make sure to check out Sfheibai's art on tumblr !

Dell Conagher was a simple man. He enjoyed the things in a modest way; shooting enemies down, slacking off at work or after work, drafting in the privacy of his workshop, gambling, smoking – and drinking.

Just like Soldier, the Engineer had fallen for the humble invitation of Demo to join him in one of teuforts bars for a proper dinner and chatter over the next mission in egypt. It was not much of a chatter but more of a drinking spree in which Soldier and Demo competed for who could down more of those vicious little shots mixed with cherry flavored schnapps, vodka and coke. They bore the malicious name ‘Ragnarok’.

Engineer and Pyro, who joined the team of three just for the simple reason that he was promised a dinner, sat at the counter and nibbled on their cocktail prawns and watched the two friends order more and more drinks. Engineer lost count by how many Demo had and how many Soldier had. “Don'tcha think ya havin’ enough now, slim?” Engineer pried, but the only thing he archived was Demo and Soldier loudly gossiping how Engineer wouldn’t be able to hold his liquor.

“Ah bet 'at sissy’s gonnae go doon efter jist two af those .” Demo slurred. “A-Affirmative.” Soldier burped. “Look at you, maggot. Even your - _hiccup-,_ even your sissy shrimps need a haircut!”  
Soldier and Demo broke out in loud guffaw that filled the bar. Both showed shit-eating grins on their flushed faces at the rather irritated gaze the texan threw back at them.  
“Boy, ah shoulda oughta beat'cha both like a mule!” Engineer sneered. Pyro didn’t take notice of all that. His meal was more important than three men arguing over who could outdrink the other.

Intoxicated with enough beer in his system already, Engineer squeezes himself between the two and ordered enough drinks to match the stack of empty glasses of Soldier and Demo.  
“Ya jus’ ain’t doin’ it right.” He smirks, grabs two shots and downs them at once. After a repressed cough and smacking his lips to taste the bitterness of cherry and vodka on his tongue, he grins at both of the men.  
“That’s how we do it in texas, honey.”

Both didn’t disguise the utter awe on their faces as they watched the texan swallow glasses after glasses down, and after the eighth was emptied, the two war-ridden men joined. Four more glasses, and Demo passed out on the floor, snoring like a wheel in need of oiling. Soldier had his head leaned on his arms and started dozing off too now. Engineer, still at the rim between sober and completely wasted, shook his head a few times in order to beat of the buzzing feeling in his head. His gaze fell between the veteran and demolition man. “Well. Ah reckon that’s that.” Engineer grins. Game over. He turns to Pyro with deliberate slowness, and still felt his brain swimming in his head like the inside of an egg. “Time to go home, boy.”

  
It was hard, being both inebriated and having the honor to carry a passed out, drooling man back to the car. He quickly threw the Demoman in the back of his truck, and Pyro did the same with Soldier. The way they landed on the rear seat was a little awkward, with Soldier lying on top of the Scotsman's broad chest and his head nestled under his chin, but Engineer couldn’t care less, he was having a wonderful time listening to the radio and giggling over almost every word, while Pyro, still dry like a nun, navigated them with the minor experience in car-driving he had back to the base.

“Mh mhhph mh mhph?” Pyro asked, what probably meant something like: ' _Are you sure you’re alright?'_  
“Ah feel fit as a fiddle, boy.” Engineer rested against the cushions of the seat, a large smirk on his flushed face, hiccuping from time to time. His white ten-gallon hat slipped over his eyes occasionally, but with an amuse chuckle, he pushed it away from his face. After a while of rather jittery and uncoordinated driving, they hear Soldier grumbling, murmuring, and after a while, Engineer watched him sit up in the rear-view mirror.

“Solly?”  
“Mom, I don’t like chocolate pudding…huh? Wha...?”  Soldier looks around rather confused.  
This wasn’t the kitchen he had seen in his dream. And that eerily handsome man in the passenger seat smirking at him wasn’t his mom either.

“Howdy, sleepin’ beauty.” Engineer drawls and grins back at the veteran. Soldier blinks a few times until his mind slowly settled back into place.  
“H-Halt.” he slurs, his brain slowly working up the question he was trained to ask first at the presence of unknown people. “Friend or foe…?”   
“What'cha gonna do if ah say foe, huh?” Engineer smirks even wider and barely contained a snicker. Infected by the texan’s chuckling, Soldier starts tittering too now.  
“You communist scum. This is an abduction isn’t it? Let me out of this car this instant!” Solly demands. “Nah son, we gotta take you and ya _boyfriend_ back to the base.”  
“Boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend…” Soldier squinted down at the body that started stirring slightly beneath him.

“Oh...oh that? Nooo, that’s not my boyfriend, you maggot! Y-You think I'm a sissified fr-fruitcake, don'tya? No, Sir, I’m an american  - _hicccup_ \-  citizen of the _unitedstatesofmurica_ …and…and…” the last sentence was slurred in an undefined mess of words and a burp. Soldier pulls his nose up as he sniffed the air and licked his lips. “This car smells of beef jerky…” he concludes. The train of thoughts have lost the track it was on and headed for a different direction. It makes Engineer laugh even harder. So much he doesn’t realize how Soldier shifts out of his seat slightly.

“Ey, rocket-boy, where ya goin’?” Engineer asks.

“T-This car smells funny. I don’t like it. I also don’t want to be... - _hiccup-_  ... a-abducted today by you weird communists with funny accents…I have work tomorrow…I will leave now.” Soldier fishes in the darkness for the doorhandle.

Engineer snorts. “No, ya dummy, ya can’t jus’ leave, we’re drivin’.”

“Don’t youuu tell me what to dooo, commie.” Soldier has his finger raised and peers through drowsy eyes back at the texan. “I am a citizen of the _unitedstatesofmurica_ and…uhh… I-I’m a free man. I can do what I want…”

Soldier’s hand grips the handle and starts pulling on it slightly. Suddenly realization dawns to the mechanic that Soldier is in fact serious about his escape plan from the awful communist duo and their beef-jerky-reeking getaway car. A icecold shock rushes through his body and drowns the intoxication in his mind temporarily as he sees Soldier opening the door. Pyro jerks in surprise at the sudden rush of wind blasting through the car with the cap opened and swerved around in order to gain control over the truck  “Hey, HEY!!” Engineer shouts alarmed. The veteran is so dazzled by the sudden change in the man’s voice and the missing object he was leaning against, he’s slipping to his side with a surprised 'whoa’ sound. Engineer is instantly leaning over his seat and grabs the door, swinging it close before the drunk man could fall out of the vehicle. 

“Soldier, no!” Engineer yells angrily. He sounds almost like he is scolding a puppy that just peed on the carpet. Soldier blinks at him surprised, the drunk haze has vanished from his eyes. Pyro rolls his eyes under the mask and mumbles sundry obscenities to the Soldier through the rear-mirror. 

The rest of the drive, nobody dares to speak, the only sound that is heard is Demo’s snoring and occasional grunts and murmurs in his sleep. That little shock had been enough for Engineer to force some sense back into his clouded mind. He pulled out the rag from his back pocket and mopped the sweat from his head. Pyro only grumbled a few more syllables. They pull into the hidden path behind rock and cactus mockups into the old abandoned bread factory that is now BLU’s headquarters. Engineer helps Soldier out of the car, who once again fell for road hypnosis and was slumped over with his head resting against the back of the passenger seat, snoring just as loud as the Demoman next to him. He wakes up instantly, and makes a few more attempts to swat  the texan’s hand away that want to grab him.

“No, communist scum; Just five more minutes.”  
“Sal ya better get ya ass movin’.” Engineer murmurs with a small smile he can’t hide. He holsters Soldier’s broad arm over his shoulder and drags him out of the car.

“Where are we, maggot?” Soldier murmurs. “At your commie hideaway?”  
“We’re at the base, silly.” Engineer chuckles slightly at the obvious delusional idea his friend had. He staggers slightly with both alcohol in his system and the Soldier leaning on him and practically dragging him through the corridors. Pyro follows, Demoman draped over his back in a piggyback-ride.

They head towards the Soldier’s and Demoman’s domiciles but Engineer makes a beeline towards his workshop, momentarily forgetting he still has the veteran clinging to him. Just after he inserted the keys with more or less grace and opened the door he hears Soldier murmur: “Th-This is not my room, communist scum.”  
  
“Yeah, well, uh…” Engineer blinks a few times to register the surroundings. Something in the back of his mind tells him to keep the man company, or more like, making him stay on his own accord. 

“I’ve got some cold ribs in the fridge.”  
  
“I-I know your brainwashing t-ta-tactics, commi! You’re not going to bait m-me with … delectable american food like a dog.”  
“Let’s see about that, slim…” Engineer drawls, and slips the Soldier down into one of the folding chairs, and moves with a few lurched steps towards the fridge.

Two blustreak beer’s beckoned him. After a few moment of staring and calculating he figures; the evening is still young. And what fits better to alcohol than alcohol? Engineer shoves the plate of half-eaten spareribs into Soldier’s hand and an opened bottle to down it with. “If either of these is poisoned…”  
“None of 'em is poisoned, ya dummy. Ya gonna have ta trust me on that.”  
“H-How would I know you’re not lying, huh?” Soldier eyes the cold dish with both wariness and interest. Being drunk makes you hungry. 

“Too paranoid, ain'tcha?” Engineer scowls.

“I-I am not paranoid, maggot! I was abducted by you and Smokey Joe and now you wanna drug me to spill all my secrets to you.”

“Drugs, huh? That's a new one ...” Engineer shakes his head and slumps down next to the Soldier. He takes a sip from his beer.

“You never know what ...- _hiccup_ \- ...you commies are planning. First you abduct me, then you and your accomplice, gravity, tried to push me out of your car,”

“Tsk, ya gonna have ta stop right there, Soldier-boy.” Engineer chuckles at that explanation. “DO NOT ...- _hiccup_ \- ... L-LAUGH AT ME, SCUM.” Soldier growls between the cold ribs he’s munching on. 

“First of all, 'tis was you who opened the door and nearly fell outside. Gravity ain’t my accomplice either, y'know.”

“Poppycock!” Soldier growls. “Gravity does not affect an american! I am a free man. Gravity is jus’ another one of those…st-stupid daunting propaganda by the Japanese, ju-jus’ like global warming.”  
  
“Boy, ya definitely full of shit.”  
“Negatory. I am full of spareribs.”

Then suddenly, they turns their heads to each other as the same idea struck their head. In the deepest voice Engineer can muster, he growls in a russian accent: “I am full of sandvich and I am coming for you!!”  
“I am _bulletprooooof_!” joined Soldier, and loud guffawing filled the silence of the workshop.

Unbeknownst to the two of them that Heavy just happened to walk pass the workshop door and hear the obvious mockery on his costs. With a snarl, the russian makes a mental note to bash in those two’s head the next morning. Soldier and Engineer calm down their laughter and find themselves breathlessly and leaned against each other.

Soldier’s head rests against Engineer’s shoulder and nuzzles at it. Engineer still hiccups with giggles and the oddly comforting softness of the Soldier’s cheek brushing against his shirt. Soldier once realizing what he was doing lifts his head. His eyes meet Engineer’s.

Something in the verdure of his green eyes was beckoning him, something in the mistiness of his iris. His face slowly looses the happy spark their laughter had left on him and it sinks into a straight-mouthed mask with lips slightly parted and eyes shifting between the Soldier’s lips and his eyes. And then something strange and weird happens. Soldier leans forwards. He misses the tinkerer’s lips with the first go and smears grease from the sides of his mouth against his cheek. The second try he finds the man’s lips. Engineer tastes barbecue sauce. It’s both weird and pleasant, Soldier’s chafed lips are oddly soft against his own and leave a feeling of warmth somewhere in the inside of Engineer’s stomach. It might also be puke that slowly bubbled up his throat. Who knows. They part a few seconds later and continued to stare at each other. Engineer looking back at Soldier with lofted eyebrows.

“We’re pretty drunk, ain’t we?” he mutters, smirking.  
“Yeah…” Soldier chuckles dumbly. And seconds later, he falls asleep with his head resting on the mechanics shoulder, snoring silently.


	2. Day 2 - Flowers

“Need a sentry here!”  
“Need a dispendah here!”  
“Need a teleportah here!”

Engineer felt like throwing his wrench into the speedsters face. For the last five minutes, he had done nothing but running circles around him, catching him off-guard and yelling at the top of his lungs whatever machinery he requires. He jumps everytime and drops his tools when Scout jumps over his head, yelling.

“Now son, ya ain’t gonna get any of those if ya won’t let me finish my–”  
“You’re too slow hardhat! Need a dispensah here!”

Well, so much to trying the nice way. It got even worse now as the RED Spy decided to join the party and sap down the already constructed buildings. “Darn!” Engie hissed and quickly ran over to his sentry to remove the sapper. It was stuck firmly to the casing and Engineer pulled and pushed on it and with a low growl threw his wrench against the box until it crumbled and broke and finally fell off the sentry like a struck down leech.

With his shotgun in his hand, he searched frantically for the french in red, only to discover the enemies Demo had destroyed his entire setup right behind his back.  
And as if that wasn’t bad enough ( Engineer was just about to pick up the remains or Sentrygun and dispenser to re-build both as fast as possible), he hears that same obnoxious voice so close to his ear it nearly caused him to have a heart attack:

“ _Need a dispensah here!_ ”

To conclude – today was definitely not a good day for BLU.  
Red had already taken two intelligence’s and each time Engineer tries to set up his buildings, a RED is around and takes it down the second it’s up. He really needed Pyro down here, or at least Soldier. Soldier, however, was busy with other matters. With his rocketlauncher strapped on his shoulder, he rocketjumped across the large area of Double Cross and shot down whoever dared to cross the bridge.

He landed on a pile of sand and a rusty old carwreck and reloaded after hitting an unsuspecting Spy that had just been carrying their last intelligence.  
“You WILL help me protect my intelligence!” he roared into the direction of Heavy and Medic that guarded the stairs. Both peeked up and quickly made their way to the briefcase on the floor. While running, Heavy was quick enough to duck his head behind the pile of boxes. Medic wasn’t. Sniper hit him right in the head and with a gurgling sound, Medic collapsed.

Heavy hated to abandon his friend like this, but he was already dead and Soldier alone wasn’t going to be able to protect the intelligence until the counter that made the intelligence explode the second Blu would touch it and try to bring back to the intelroom would hit zero again. While he shoved rockets from his pockets into his rocketlauncher, his covered eyes roamed over the field, alert whenever there was a RED trying to sneak past them and grab their papers. 

“Baby cowards come and try!” Heavy growled. Soldier wasn’t paying attention, for he had found something else while his eyes roamed the small area next to the cemented platform. There in the dead, short trimmed grass, a single flower had grown. Normally Soldier wouldn’t have cared much for plants. In fact, he dammed them as unmanly, and not worth of their existence, even though he missed the fact that plants were the essence of life.

But he knew for a fact that, even though blue was the usual dresscode at Builders League United, Engineer’s favorite color was yellow. Yellow just like the single, small, rather beautiful growth there on the lawn. Behind Heavy’s back, Soldier quickly bend down to pick up the flower, checking if no one saw him, especially that Spy. Soldier picking flowers – hah, what a preposterous idea.

But Soldier was quick and plucked the flower before carefully stuffing it into his coat pocket. Suddenly red blinking spheres rolled into their directions. Soldier was just about to open his mouth and call out “incoming!” as the bombs exploded. The last thing Soldier heard was a triumphal  _“Kabeeeewm!”_  before his body gets shed into fleshy blood-dripping pieces that sail over the bridge and down into the abyss.

Ten seconds later, he materializes back into respawn and is happy to discover the flower is still resting in his coatpocket. It’s a little out of form, and the head’s hanging down just slightly. Yet before he could follow Heavy out of the respawn camber, the gates opened with the alarm set on, and the administrators voice echoing through BLU’s base: “ _You failed_.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Hell man! That was an amazing killing spree—  _BY THE OTHER TEAM!!_ ”

The black and blue beaten mercenaries grumbled and murmured and growled under their breaths. “You are all the sorriest excuses for Soldiers I have ever seen! You are all _maggots!_ I have seen better action in an retirement home than on my battefield! This is unacceptable!!”  
“Aye, and that’s the hardhats fault!” Demo accusingly pointed his finger at the texan. The entire team was agreeing.  
“Engineer is not credit to team!”

“Ya friggin’ egghead, we lost cuz ya couldn’t put up a single sentry!”  
“Yer bleedin’ idiot!”  
“Zhe dispenser does nozhing!”  
“Mhhph! Mh mhmmph mh mh!”

That was what greeted the Engineer once he materialized back into the BLU base. A lost battle was always a disappointment, especially when there was no paycheck at the end of the day that would pay their rents or food for a whole week. And usually, everyone lets their anger out on the poor little mechanic. Engineer just stared at his feet, his eyes hidden behind the goggles and once the rants of the team was over, he made his way to his workshop.

“Alright, Alright! Enough blubbering!” Soldier shoves the Demoman away from the Engineer. “All of you, go get patched up again! I want you to—” He was cut short by the loud bang of the door the Engineer threw, the locks were turning. 

“Wuss!” Sniper snarls under his breath. Soldier catches that and instantly turns around. “What was that?”  
“Oi said  _wuss_! Ye want me ta spell it for ye?” Soldier instantly rushed forwards, into the Australians direction, finger raised, teeth bared. “Hey, you, Sheila! Don’t call him that, you goddamn camper!” Soldier hisses. “He’s got more guts than any of you sorry bags of crap!!”  
 “Oy, ya wonna defend him now?”   
“All of you mollycoddled bedwetters have failed equally! You, The frenchie, even the goddamn sputnik! Hell, even me” Soldier proclaims loudly and throws an earnest gaze at the team. “I do not tolerate such unfrank critique coming from any of you! It insults the team spirit!”

“But that hardhat's so goddamn _slow!_ ” Scout growls. “He could'a set up everythin’ up if he wouldn’t get killed all the time!”  
“Dha! He wont poot up teleport for Heavy.”  
“Or a dispenser!”   
“Or a goddamn sentry!”

“Now now, meine freunde, ve can agree, ve all didn’t do very good job, but zhere is no reason to—”  
That was quite a lethal mistake, for now the Team starts verbally assaulting him. Heavy is the only one that shoves the medic behind his sturdy posture and bellow down at the furious group of mercenaries. Soldier just furrows his eyes.

As always, Soldier wants to be part of everything, even though most of the time he doesn’t understand it, or is not invited into it whatsoever, but right now, he finds a good distraction. His hand glides into the pocket of his coat. The flower is still there and rests against his chest, looking a little squashed and a petal of two was missing. Soldier carefully brushes his calloused finger over the blossom in order to make it look a little prettier again, before carefully turning around and moving away from the arguing group.

Spy is the one that materializes back into being, leaning against the wall close to Pyro and mutters: “Soldier is interested in botany, huh?”   
Pyro cocks his head as the two watched the man strive down the corridor alone and staring at the flower he holds in his hand and thoughtfully puts it back into order.

Soldier vanishes behind the corner and moves to the workshop he heard several seconds ago fall close. He nibbles on his lower lip, before deciding he should try. His fist raises, and he knocks carefully at the iron door.  
No answer.  
“Engie?” he says.  
No answer.

“Engie, this is Soldier! Open this door.” he tries now, a little more earnest. 

“Go away, Soldier.” he hears from inside.  
Soldier pouts. “Engineer, that is an order! You do not want to ignore my authority, will you?”  
But still, nothing. His eyebrows fall down beneath the helmet into an angry scowl. “By the count of three you will have this door opened or I will open it with my bare hands! One…”

He raises his finger. No reaction.  
“Two…”  
No reaction.  
“…What comes after two, Engie?”

Finally, he hears a defeated sigh, the sounds of chair legs scrubbing over the floor and footsteps towards the door. Several locks are opened behind the large door, before Engineer opens it and sticks his head outside. He looks pale, worn out, the goggles hanging down around his neck, and he has dark rings under his green eyes.

“Sal, if a here ta yell at me too, ya can swing your backside away from mah workshop.”  
“Negatory!” Soldier says, posture rigid, hands behind his back. Engineer frowns at the veteran.  
“What else ya want then?” he snarls. Soldier is fast to thrust out his fist, the flower tight in his grip, holding it close to the Engineers face.

Engineer is taken aback by that sudden movement, and for even a second he was believing the Soldier was going to swing his fist into his face. But instead, he sees a yellow flower, quite bend and frazzled, yet beautiful nevertheless, in the tight grip of the man's clenched hand.  
“Oh…” Engie breathes at the flower held into his direction.   
“For you.” Soldier says. Engie’s face instantly lit up, and a goofy smile curls his lips.  
  
“Ah, heh…Thanks mister!” He carefully takes the flower into his hand and examines it, carefully brushing his fingertip over the petals.   
“Where did'cha find this beauty?”  
“On today’s mission!”  
“Ah, how did'cha know ah’m havin’ a weak spot for flowers?” Engie takes a sniff on it in hope to find a sweet scent beckoning his senses. He smells blood and gunpowder.   
  
“You are a sissy, sissy like flowers.”  
Engie gives Soldier a half-hearted scowl, pouting, before smiling again. “Ah shoulda oughta teach ya some lesson, rocket-boy. Callin’ me a sissy…” He chuckles. “But let’s get this one some water first.”  
He turns around and walks back into his workshop, fishing for a glass and filling it with water, carefully placing the flower inside.

“There we go. Looks much better a'ready, doesn’t it?” Engie smiles, easing his features from any frowns and paleness his handsome face was wearing before.  
Soldier feels his heart beat a little softer at this sight.  
“Yeah…he does.” he mutters. And means Engineer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might want to add that I'm not a native speaker, so I apologize for any current/future mistakes.  
> Comments are always welcome, leave kudos, yada, yada, yada :P


	3. Day 3 - Pick Up Lines

“Show me how to seduce a man!”  
“Excusez moi?”  
  
Soldier stood at the other end of the room he had blatantly invaded without even so asking, chest puffed out, hands curled into fists, behind his back, his helmeted gaze earnest and directed towards the man sitting in his armchair.  
“You heard me quite alright, crouton!” the veteran growled. “Show me how to seduce a man!”  
  
Spy placed down scotch glass and magazine on the nearby table, and turned in his seat to face his unwelcome guest. He stared at the american for several seconds in hope said request was just a jinx, a trick, a gag. Well, as far as humor was part of this mans life, Spy knew he was honest most of the time. Sarcasm was not his strength – and romance apparently neither.

“Pardon, militaire, I can't seem to follow up.” he said.  
“You have shown Scout how to woo a woman, only a few weeks ago. Now I want you to show me the same – with a man!”  
Spy blinked several times before he finally seemed to fully comprehend Soldier's plead. First of all, Soldier, out of all people in the base, came to him for relationship tips. A man that probably considered a vicious killing spree a romantic trip. Second of all – a man? Wasn't Soldier going to ask him how to seduce a female? Apparently not so. And the way the man was standing there, hands behind his back, his face straight-mouthed, almost in a scowl, he didn't even remotely show a sign of this request being a joke. He even shivered slightly.  
  
Spy eyed him up and down.  
“ 'ow come out of all se people 'ere you could 'ave asked you came too me?”  
“Scout has successfully persuaded Miss Pauling to go out on a date with him, through your help.” that was not entirely true, for Scout basically just tagged along with Miss Pauling deposing bodies. For Soldier, it was considered a date however.  
“You may be a slug-sucker gone bad, but you have done an efficient job with the boy. Your services are needed once again.”  
“And who is se lucky one, if I may ask?” Spy furrowed his eyebrows.  
  
Soldier seemed to flinch a little at that question. He trembled a little more now, hands fidgeting with his fingers and the hem of his jacket...  
“That is none of your concern, Frenchie! You are simply needed for the purpose of showing me how to seduce the same gender.”  
  
Spy still couldn't truly believe the man who banned free love ( and especially same sex love) as hippy-flimflam was asking for this. And without even being kidding around. But he knew that if he refused, he would probably feel the wrath of the crazed red-blooded two-hundred pounds of sheer strangled anger. And by god, when respawn is down, he wouldn't challenge it.  
  
It comes that Spy, the next day, finds himself in the trainings room, the same scenario as he had with Scout. There is a table with utensils he should use, and he pushes it towards the military man. Soldier stares back at him.  
  
“Seduce me.”  
“Come again?”  
“Seduce me, Soldier.”  
“....If you think I am even going to _consider_ doing that---”  
“ _SEDUCE ME!_ ”  
  
This didn't seem like what the military man had expected. Even under the helmet hidden, Spy could see his features falling. In either anger or insecurity. It wasn't really recognizable anyway, every emotion the man displayed looked angry in some way. Spy waited until he would do his move.  
  
“Well...?” Spy says, patiently.  
“Well, _what_?” Soldier grunts.  
  
Spy points towards the table. Soldier stares down at the single rose, the box of chocolate and bottle of wine.

“Do your move.”  
  
Soldier doesn't.  
Soldier stares at the items like he had never seen them before. For almost a minute, the room fills with silence and Spy slowly starts to loose his patience.  
  
“I am waiting.” he says.  
“This is not working!” Soldier growls then. “I can't concentrate with you in one room!”  
Spy quirked his eyebrow. “I need to do try this with someone else!”  
“Would this 'elp..?” Spy fishes out the disguise kit in his coatpocket. He presses a few buttons and then with a small hissing noise, morphs into the appearance of Sniper. RED sniper.  
  
“You are demanding me to seduce a RED? Are you out of your non-existent mind, crouton?”  
He could see Soldier's hand menacingly twitching. Spy is quick to fix this and morph into the blue version of the Australian.  
“Go on then, mate.” he says. Soldier collects himself, now that he had a BLU standing in front of him. He clears his throat, straightens his coat, pushes his helmet back in place. And then, nothing. Once again. Soldier stares, fidgets around, Spy waits.  
“Soldier, come on now, I don't have all day.”  
  
“This isn't working either...No, not with Sniper. I'm not going to train this on a hobbit.”  
“Fine.”  
  
He morphs into medic.  
“The Kraut? Spy, I would have thought better of you!”  
“Ugh...”  
  
He morphs into Pyro.  
“No, not Pyro...he's... _scary_!”  
  
Spy groans and rips off the mask from his face, instantly changing back into his own appearance. “Soldier, this is not bringing us anywhere!” - “It's not my fault I can't concentrate!”  
“Then tell me who you could imagine training this with!”  
“I need something...smaller. And...amiable. And...well...maybe with a texan accent...just – something _american_ , for the love of god!”  
  
Spy understood. With a small wicked grin, he places the mask back over his face, presses the blue button, and in his best voiceacting, he drawls: “Howdy, Solly.”  
The moment he had morphed into the Engineer, Soldier's posture is rigid and trembling. He fidgets even more now, eyes darting around. It seemed like Soldier was falling for his disguise so much he would actually think it was the real engineer standing in front of him.

“H-Hello Engie.” Soldier greets feebly. Spy smiles. “What'cha up to?”  
“I—uh---I was...” Soldier stares down at the items he could use. Spy watches as he picks up the rose and without even so looking at him, he held it out for the texan. Spy frowned visibly, but decided to stay in character. “Ah, well, ain't that a cute lil' flower.” he takes it from Soldier's hand, stares down at it, smiles, and then he sees Soldier suddenly closing up very quickly.  
  
“Can I kiss now?”  
  
“What? _No!_ ”  
  
Spy is quick to remove his mask and glare at the man. “You imbecile, you can't just hand over a flower and go for a kiss!”  
“I'm american, I'm free to do whatever I want!”  
“Soldier, if you want this to work out, you are going to have to lay that patriotic insanity to rest for just a minute!”  
“Well, whatelse should I do?”  
“Compliment me! Tell me something that flatters me! _Seduce me,_ for se love of god!”  
“FINE!” Soldier moves away from the man, and waits until he is back in the form of the texan.

“Let's do this, again, shall we?” Spy says.  
Soldier swallows and nods, slowly scootig forwards again, with his hand on his back.  
  
“Engie, you look...ah...uh...uhm...” Soldier frowns.  
“Well? Ah look...?” Spy/Engie ventures.  
“You look...chubby?”  
“...Are you serious, Soldier?” Spy asks, giving the military man a gaze that even made the rough man flinch slightly.  
  
“Well, he _is_ chubby!” Soldier defended himself. “What? Shall I go around coddling him and lying at him?”  
“Oui, that is _exactly_ what you should do! He doesn't want to hear the truth, he wants to hear compliments! Embellishments! Make him feel like being plump is handsome!”

Spy pushes down the mask again.  
“One more time.”  
“Okay.”  
  
Soldier clears his throat once more. “Engie, today you look ...soft and round!”  
Spy blinked. “---Thanks...ah guess?” he mutters.  
“You also happen to appear very appropriately dressed...for...your work and professions.” Soldier stared a little helplessly at the disguised man in hope this was somehow flattering.  
“That's nice, ah suppose...?”  
“And you are...ah...very... delectable for my, uh... desires...?” It was more of a question really than a compliment.  
  
Spy carefully removes the mask from his face. “Yes, that was...that was horrible.” Spy commented dryly, and grabbed his disguise kit to remove his costume and fetch another cigarette. He lights it up, leaving the confused Soldier standing.   
“So, am I ready?” Soldier asks.  
“Non. I'm afraid not even remotely.”  
“But you even could make Scout into a ladies man! Why not me?” Soldier hisses.  
Spy thinks for a second or two, before peaking back up at the man.  
  
“There is one more possibility...”

 

* * *

 

“Engie, are you religious?”  
  
Engineer looks up from his drafting table. He had his goggles still on, even with the hardhat missing, a few tools placed next to him, one of them in his hand as he was repairing the Demo's grenade launcher from yesterdays battle. He sees Soldier standing next to him in the empty messhall, hands on his back and his posture rigid and obviously clenched. Engineer blinks a few times at that strange question.  
  
“Ah...well, ah guess ah'm religious, why ya--?”  
“Because you are the prayers to my...no, wait...”  
  
Soldier turned around them and mumbled under his breath, before turning back to the texan. “Because you are the answer to my prayers.”  
  
His eyebrows lofted over the rim of his goggles.  
Well, that was... _something_! Out of the blue, surely, and poorly performed. It was supposed to be flattering he supposed, but the way Soldier said it was simply odd, if not laughable.  
  
“Well, uh---”  
“What are you doing, private cowboy?”  
Soldier leans over his shoulder to see the weaponry he knows belongs to the Scotsman, placed on top of a quickly scribbled blueprint. He is oddly close all of the sudden, even the texan could feel it. His chest nearly presses into his shoulder.  
  
“Oh! Y'see, Demo's been askin' me ta fix his grenade launcher. Seems like he has a lil' problem with the calibration of---”  
“Engie, your eyes are as green as the window of an abandoned aquarium.”  
“...'Scuse me?”  
  
Engineer stared now in utter confusion at the man next to him.  
“You heard me right, Engie! Your eyes are as green as the grass growing over Stalin's grave!”

Without even so considering to ask, Soldier grabs the goggles resting on the tinkerers nose and lifts them up, strapping them on top of the bald forehead. Engineer blinks twice, thrice, then open his mouth.  
“I—uh---errm...”

It wasn't flattering. In Soldier's mind, it perhaps was. In his, however, it was cheesy to no end, impulsive, simply out of the blue – not truly appropriate for the situation either.  
“Yes, green as windowcleaner, as I was supposing.” Soldier mutters as he stares at them beneath the lip of his helmet. In the far distance, Spy slaps his face with an exasperated groan.  
  
“Soldier, ya better be tellin' me where this is goin', cuz' ah'm not findin' a track to run on right now---”  
“Your parents must be terrorist.”  
“I'm not---eh, _pardon?!!_ ”  
“Because you are a bomb, Engie.”

That was getting weirder with every second passing.

Engie understands that Soldier was apparently trying to compliment him. Complimenting was not on Soldier's strong sides though, as clearly observable. Engineer nevertheless seemed to understand.  
“Also I might want to add you look very soft and round today, Engineer, and that it's quite understandable if anybody would feel the urge to hold you close for a regimen of cuddles and coddling hippy hair-braiding activities.”  
  
“Say, rocket-boy; are ya tryin' ta flirt with me?”  
Even under the helmet he noticed the Soldier's eyebrow lifting up as his intentions were manifested. The veteran quickly removes his hands from the goggles, steps a few feet away, arms strapping behind his back.  
  
“Negatory.” he says.  
“Ya sure?” Engineer arches his brow.  
“Affirmative!” Soldier says.  
“Ah'm quite sure ya tryin' ta dally with me, a'right.”  
  
“I am not trying, I am hundred percent succeeding... I mean... _if_ I was trying to woo you.”  
“Bullshit. Ya bein' absolutely terrible at it.” Engineer laughs at that and gently pats his knee. Soldier's face is cherry red.  
“My arts of seduction are outstanding, maggot!” Soldier protested and stomped with his feet. Engineer only laughed louder, brushing away a tear from his eye. “Do not laugh at me, I didn't give you permission to laugh!!”  
  
“Ah, good night irene...” Engineer moved away from his seat and approached the Soldier, hands on his back with a leer on his face that brought that healthy pink shine back on the Soldier's cheek

“How's about ah'm showin' ya how it's done, hm?” Engineer furtively traced the edges of the Soldier's coat-collar, setting them back in order. They had buckled a little under the Soldier's nervous trembling.  
“Well, ah'm always wonderin', if you're here, then who's runnin' heaven, hm?”  
“I don't know who's running Heaven, Engie, what kind of---”  
  
It takes Soldier a while to understand what the Engineer meant. Upon that however, Soldier's face reddened even more. He let the lip of his helmet sink down over his face as far as possible to hide that flush covering his face. Engineer snickers as he watches the Soldier fidget around with his fingers, far in the background, a very utterly baffled Spy stares in disbelief at the display of his involuntary pupil.

“I can't believe it worked...” muttered the french.

 


	4. Day 4 - Love Confession

“Phew. Well, wasn't that some mighty fine thing...?”   
  
Engineer mopped away the sweat from his forehead as he exited the workshop. Soldier followed, still fumbling with the buttons of his pants. His helmet hung askew on his head, but Engineer's didn't look any better, not to mention his wrinkled shirt with a few buttons ripped off and healthy blush on his quite content face.  
  
“Yeah...” muttered Soldier, as he continued to buckle up his belt. “You think anybody heard us?”  
“Nah. Ya got sum mighty strength in ya lungs, rocket boy, but ya could murder someone inside that room without anybody noticin'.” Engineer chuckles.  
Any normal person would have probably wondered how the Engineer knew that for sure, and if that was either a good or actually quite bad thing to be aware of, but Soldier is far from normal.  
“That's true american architecture right there! Even the walls of your workshop are doing efficient work! Always cooperative when things get _frantic._ ” He praises.  Engineer chuckles. They look at each other for a minute.

“Thank you.” Soldier adds then, his voice very thin and soft all of the sudden.  
  
“ Darlin', ya don't have to thank me whenever we have sex, hm?” Engineer gently pats the man's shoulder. “Doesn't sound quite elegant, now does it?”  
  
“Negatory! It's my obligation to thank my fellow american for any team work or team activities.”  
  
“Teamwork...” Engineer shakes his head with an amused smirk. “Ya could call that teamwork a'right, huh? Well then, ah reckon ah should show mah gratitude as well.”  
  
Engineer carefully bends down the collar of his coat to brush his thumb over the little bite mark he had left in the heat of the moment on the Soldier's neck. “Thanks for the ride, partner.”  
  
Often enough had Engineer told himself not to get too excited when they engaged in past-battle-coitus. The first few times, it had been nothing. Overcoming the drought of skin contact both men wished for. Engineer was desirable to the Soldier. And quickly became attractive. At the beginning of this thing, whatever it was, Soldier was determined that this was nothing if not convenient for them both. After all, if Heavy and Medic could do, why couldn't he?  
  
There was nothing that would even indicate that he was falling for this hippy-free-love-baloney. No emotions. No feelings. No marking each other as their own. Just sex.  
  
Alas, as one day he finds the large russian holding the Medic's hand in his own, seeing the way the infantryman looked down at the Medic, so soft and lovingly, and how the German looked back at his tall lover, Soldier realizes that there was more than just lust between the two. And somehow, somewhere, deep inside him, he wanted the same. With Engineer. His first reaction was to yell and shame them for being such weaklings. Love is a vulnerability. Love makes you weak and dumb. Its not until Soldier found himself thinking about the texan every time, dreams of him, or wishes to be close to the man, that also he realizes – he wants more.  
  
He wants hand holding. Loving gazes. He wants to be weak and dumb.  
  
He wants _him._  
  
Engineer leads the Soldier back to the door of his room. Soldier had been quiet all the time while Engineer drawled something about the next mission at Mountain Lab in Florida and how he should make sure he got no Spies running after him. As they stopped, Engineer looks at him again, and Soldier looks back. They are quiet for a few seconds.  
  
“Well...reckon ah see ya tomorrow, hm?”  
“Yes, sir.” Soldier nods carefully.  
“So, sleep well, Sal.” Engineer turns to walk back down the hallway.

Soldier takes in a deep breath, swallows, and then steps forward. “Engineer?”  
“Yup?” The man turns around, casually hooking his hands into his belt. Soldier freezes for a few seconds, before he opens his jaw.  
“There's something I must tell you.”  
“Well, go ahead then.”  
  
Soldier clenches and unclenches his hands. They are very sweaty all of the sudden, and his mouth feels dry.  
“I...I'm...”  
Goddamnit.  
“I'm proud of calling you my colleague, Engie. You are ...a true asset to my team. I wouldn't know what else to do without having you in battle.”

Engineer blinks a few times at the Soldier standing rigid in position, hands curling and opening again nervously. He could almost sense the man's tenseness from across the room.  
“Ah, uhm, that's...that's mighty nice of ya, Sal. Ah'm glad we're doin' some good work out there together, huh?”  
Engineer smiles at the taller man. “Ah well, guess ah'm gonna get a lil' shut-eye now. Ya should too, Sal, we gonna get up early.” Engineer gives a lazy salute, before turning again and heading for his own room. 

 

* * *

 

“I love you, Engie. I have always loved you. I love everything about you. I love the way you think. The way you talk. I love the way the most complex things are so easy to you. I love the way your eyes shimmer when you have a new idea or when you complete a construction. I love your eyes, I love how green they are, I love your handsome features. I love your smile, I love your voice, I love your texan accent. I love your body, I love how you can carry the heaviest things without even making a face.  
I like it when you're happy. And I like it when you're angry. I even like your puffy red cheeks when you cried, and I like it when you blush. I like it when you're angry at me, and I like it when you laugh at me. I love it when you laugh, you have the most beautiful laughter there is. I love it when you shout. I love it when you call me a 'dummy' or when you threat to 'beat me like a rented mule'.  
  
And I love it when you hug me, and when you pat my cheek or shoulder. I love holding you in my arms. I love your skin against mine. I love kissing you, and I love feeling you. I love it when you say my name, and I love it when you scratch and bite me, even if it hurts, I love it.  I love making love to you. I love every little inch of you, and every little quirk you have. I think about you wherever I go, and I think of you wherever I am. I dream of you every night. I see you everywhere. I feel you everywhere. Everything reminds me of you. I don't care if you're a man, or a woman. Or if loving you that much is wrong or right. I want to hold your hand in mine. I want to go wherever you go. I want to follow you, and I want to give you everything I have. I want to be by your side, to the day we die. I want to become old with you. And I want to be weak and dumb and vulnerable for you. I want to be yours, and yours only.  I want to feel you, and hold you, and never let you go again. I want to protect you. And I want to be protected by you. I want nobody and nothing else but you.

I want...  
i like...  
i love...”

  
Soldier raises his head, and stares back into the mirror.  
Dammit. In his head it had already sounded weird. Spoken out, it sounded even worse. Soldier takes a deep breath, and then sighs.

The train was rattling and shaking, and splashes of water spilled over the edges of the sink and on his hands and his shirt. He takes a handful, and brushes the cool water into his face, into his short hair. He's soaked in sweat, but he just can't stop trembling.  
“Hey, private haircut! Hurry oop a little in there!” He heard Demo whine from behind the locked door, followed by a few frantic knocks.

Soldier stares back at his reflection, before grabbing a few paper tissues from the dispenser and drying his face, taking his helmet and situating it back on his head, and opens the door  
“Ugh, finally!” Demo grunts, his expression ceased and he hopped from one feet to the other. “Yoo've been in there for twalv minutes, are ye alreight?”  
  
“I am fine.” Soldier assures.  
"Well, _Ah'm_ nae fine! I've kept this in th' entire time!" Demo quickly squeezed past the veteran and locked the cabin behind him.

Soldier growls silently, and then moves down the train compartments. The weather in Florida wasn't any much hotter or colder than New Mexico. But everything was muggy.  
  
Maybe it was the heat, or just the constant amount of stress the Soldier felt. The entire ride, the veteran was either thoughtfully staring outside the window, or hiding in the bathroom. Engineer started to get worried over the man that usually wasn't that silent and distanced from everything.  
  
As they arrived at the train station in Fort Myers, Engineer grabbed his luggage and carried toolbox, suitcase and several blueprints in a quiver strapped around his shoulder. The weather didn't bother him the slightest, being raised in Texas. Heavy, Spy and Medic however seemed less happy about those persistent temperatures. They wheezed and gasped like dogs in the heat, waving their hands up and down to fan some cold air into their faces.  
  
They started marching down the long street to their base, past large dark ponds in which from time to time a fish hopped into the air, or a scaled pair of eyes stared through the water surface at them.  They crossed through a small village that reminded the Texan much of his own home.  
  
People crossed their way, and each of them, Soldier eyed with silent curiosity. He saw young people, old people. People running, people strolling. Couples holding hands. Boys and girls chatting and hugging each other, kissing, and smiling. He saw mothers with their daughters, and fathers with their sons. Seeing all those people, men hand in hand with women, and families with children...  
  
Soldier feels like there had been a wrong turn in his life. A wrong turn, where he started loving a man instead of a woman. Where he started losing interest in having any offspring or female contact.  
He just wants the Engineer.  
And knowing this, knowing he might been wrong, might been a mistake - was he even a man anymore? A man for loving an other man? He never felt that unmanly and immature than he feels at this moment.  
  
The people of the village eyed the group of strangers with considerable astonishment. Especially that masked person hopping joyfully behind the man in the balaclava. Neither of them really minded, and neither of them said a word about the people gossiping.  
  
The field behind the village was wide and rich, the grass reached almost up to their knees.  
“Ye blokes better watch out for snakes!” Sniper warned. “These bloody scaly mongrels loike ta stroike unsuspectin' wankas loike you n' me.”  
Luckily, they crossed no snakes path, but Heavy merely stepped on a small lizards tail which the reptile dropped in fright and a turtoise lazily trying to cross the street.  
  
“Am I a man, Engie?”  
  
Engineer was surprised by that question. He turns his head to the Soldier walking next to him, his helmet tilted far over his eyes and obscuring half of his face. Throughout the entire journey, the man had stayed very quiet, hearing him speak was surprising – especially being asked  _that_  question too.  
  
Engineer quirked his eyebrow, a little confused about this question. “As far as I can judge, ya a man a'right, hoss.”  
“I don't mean from my appearance, _maggot._ ” the veteran growled then and gnashed his teeth frustrated. “Well, ya should explain a lil' better then next time, how's about that?”  
Soldier sighs again.  
  
“I mean...am I a man...to you?”  
“Solly, ah'm not quite understandin' ya question. You're a man to me jus' fine, so, why ya askin'?”  
Soldier then lifts his hand, to rub over his sweaty neck in diffidence. “Would you still think of me as a man after sleeping with another man?”  
“Ya really think sleepin' with another man makes ya less of a man? Well...does it make _me_ less of a man to ya?”  
“You? No, I--- well, maybe a little bit.”  
He chuckled softly as Engineer jabs his elbow into his ribs. “Ah should'a oughta beat ya like a rented mule, boy.”  
  
He's doing it again, Soldier thought, as he sees the man pulling up his lip into that lopsided smirk that makes his knees soft. He swallows in order to get back on the train of thoughts he was trailing on, and not get too distracted by the man's beauty.

“Then what are men to you that have _… feelings_ for other men?”  
“Feelings as in luvin' an other man?”  
“Yeah...”  
“Well, love happens to all of us, don't it? Some men love men, some women love women. Neither of 'em are less of a man or woman for bein' with the person they want ta stay together with. It ain't about what they got in their pants. It's about what they got in their heart. ”  
  
Engineer places his hand over the left side of his chest to emphasize his statement, smiling back at the military man. “Ah wouldn't consider any boy lovin' an other boy less manly than someone with a gal at their side, yknow? At least thats mah view on things. Ain't that common in Texas, y'see...”  
  
Soldier seems to think about this for a while, while they stroll down the street.  
All of the sudden, Engineer felt something close to his hand. A glance down to his side, he found the rough, way larger hand of the veteran next to his, wrapping his fingers around Engies pinkie.  
  
“Well, in that case...If you think this way...” Soldier carefully wraps his hand around the Engineer's fingers.  
“Solly...?” Engineer looks a little dumbfounded back at his friend.  
“There is something I must tell you, Engie...”  
  
Soldier's helmet tilted up a little, revealing his babyblue eyes that glanced back at him with softness in his gaze. Engineer doesn't fight the reflex of his hand that carefully closed around the Soldier's, giving it a small squeeze as he stares deep into his eyes.   
  
“Please do...” he coaxes gently.  
  
Soldier swallows as he remembers the words he had collected in his mind and spoken out to the mirror a few hours ago. He feels his tongue dry in his mouth and his figure shivering a little. He looks down at their hands locked together and back at the Engineer's face. He opens his mouth, closes it again. After a few more moments, he takes a deep breath, and starts confessing.

 


	5. Day 5 - Gaming

 “Could you _not?_ ”  
  
Scout grimaced at the couple sharing a kiss. Soldier and Engineer pause in their innocent display of affection with their lips still locked to turn and peek at the young man sitting at the table across from them. Both seemed to have forgotten they weren't alone.  
  
“This is really friggin' weird, yknow?”  
“Ah, shucks, Nothin' weird about kissin'.” Engineer gently pats Soldier's cheek.  
  
“Duh, of course, especially with you two old farts! And especially for five goddamn minutes!”  
  
Scout stuck out his tongue and ceased his face. For the last few moments he had to witness the two older men canoodling, smooching and stroking each others faces while muttering some sweet nothings into their ears, with Scout sitting at the same table, thin bony fingers continuously jabbing on this strange gray box in his hands that had been emitting absolutely pesky, ear-unnerving tunes. From time to time the Bostonian would grunt and gripe frustrated.  
  
“If you numb-nut are too much of a wuss to watch the display of two american men wishing to engage in exchanges of affections, you may swing your sissified backside out of my sight!” Soldier growls, demonstratively giving the texan a kiss on the cheek. He finds satisfaction in the repulsed noise the speedster does.  
  
“And you two go get a fucking room!”  
“Negatory! I can kiss my man wherever I want to!” Soldier gives Engineer another smooch on his neck. The Texan gives a breathy laugh at the exasperated and simultaneously gentle actions of the Soldier that holds him. “I was here first!” Scout snarls.  
“False accusations! We were here at approximately 1800 hours, while you arrived at 1802 hours, hence we have been here longer by five minutes!”  
“Two minutes, Sal.”  
“Two minutes, that's what I said!”  
  
“Gosh, whuteva.” Scout rolls his eyes demonstratively, and stares back down at the toy in his hand. “As long as you two greasers won't start making out on the table!”  
  
“You know what? That is a fantastic idea!” Soldier then proceeds to heft the Engineer with his hands under the man's arms. Engineer yelps a little at the volatile actions of his lover, finding himself leaning over the table and the military man looming over him, lips at his neck. In other occasions he would have found that indications very convenient. Now however they had audience.  
  
“Sal, stop that.” he gently pressed his hand against the Soldiers chest.  
Scout shrieks and shields his eyes from that display. “Ah, _geez_! That's just-- agh, you want me to go blind? Goddammit, stop that!!”  
“This is my mess hall and I will do whatever I want in my mess hall!”  
Scouts quickly scrambles out of the seat. “A'right, A'right, I'm leaving already, see, I'm leaving! Geez, you guys are so _gross_!!”

Scout grouses a few more times, while leaving the mess hall as quick as possible to spare more involuntary moments with those two enamored men. 

“Wuss!” Soldier mutters. “Sal, ya gotta stop bullyin' the poor boy.”  
“He called us old! He doesn't deserve better!”  
“Ah, he's jus' a lil' touchy, ya know that.”  
“A wuss, as I said.”  
“Enough fussin' now, ya hear Sal?”

Engineer continued to place small butterfly along the Soldier's jawline. He feels the rasps of sloppily trimmed stubble against his own, and his sturdy arms looping around him once more to be pulled closer. They prolonged their soft kisses and gentle touches, now completely undisturbed from anyone, except the strange little gray box Scout has left on the table that might be watching them, if it had eyes.  
  
“He left his lil' toy here...” Engineer mutters, loud enough to draw the Soldier's attention from trailing lips down the man's ear he fondled. He hears him give a little thoughtful growl as he moves away to stare down at the object himself now neither of the two had put much attention to at the beginning. Now that for once Scout was not holding the thing in his hand and letting nobody touch it, they were curious.

At the beginning Soldier had accused Scout for using Spy devices, or even recording devices for some special communist organization. But neither turned out to be true. Soldier's paw reaches out to the thing and draws it close to them, turning and inspecting it.  
“Let's see what kind of hippy flimflam this is...” he declares. It was a plastic box, big enough to fit into a pants pocket. It had strange riffles around the edges, and flat angles. There were two round red buttons labeled as A and B, and a black cross-formed black button, and two smaller gray buttons at the bottom. In the middle was a small screen, similar to computer monitors. In italic letters there stands 'Game Boy'  
  
“Game Boy? What kind of name is that for a spy-toy?”  
“Ya still believin' that thing's some kinda device from the russian government?”  
“Of course I do! Awareness, private cowboy, is the top priority. You never know what those communists plan to do.” he turns and twists the thing.  
  
“I just gotta find that damn camera somewhere.”  
“Ah, let's see here.” Engineer takes it into his own hands, feeling its weight, the form on his real palm, inspecting the case. “Nope, doesn't seem harmful ta me, boy. Looks like some new modern technology trinket...”  
  
“You are just going to leave it by that, Engie? You can't tell if this isn't a bomb or something! Something we haven't seen yet.” Soldier suddenly stands. “That proves it! If even you can't identify it; we must... we have to... We must depose this, at instant!”  
“Soldier, ya can't jus' throw it away, it's not your property!”  
“The bean-pole will understand once I explain his goddamn freedom is on the line!”  
“Sal, ya gonna put that darn thing back down, right now!”  
“Negatory, I will---”  
  
It seemed whatever movement Soldier did then activated the thing in his hand. With a click, the screen on top brightened up suddenly, emitting a strange 'bling' sound. Soldier gasps.  
“Dear god, I set up the alarm! Quick, Engie, hide under the table!”  
Soldier paws the Engineer's hardhat and pushes him down to the floor.  
  
“Dagnabbit, Sal, get'cha hands of me!” Engineer slaps the hand from his head, and just holds the veteran from throwing the device into a nearby wall. He snatches the box from Soldier's hands and ignores the angry growls from the man as he sinks back into his seat and starts experimenting with it. “Let's see here...”  
“Engie, no! Stop!” Soldier leans over the texan's shoulder. “You're going to detonate it!”  
“Ain't do nothin' of that, Rocket-Boy.”  
  
“I won't allow you to communicate with whatever vicious individual constructed this...” he paused, once a strange picture appeared on the screen. Engineer experimentally clicked one of the buttons. Just moments later does he find himself in a world of black and white, somewhere presumably in the oasis of Egypt, a figure standing in the corner with a cap and what Soldier could identify as a mustache. “What's this now?” he frowned.  
“Got no clue.” Engineer shrugs. “Let's find out.”  
  
Before Soldier could express another word of his concern, does Engineer press more buttons. The figure starts moving, jumps high up in the air, runs around. Soldier is flabbergasted while Engineer has quite a lot of fun in watching the figure moving under his commands. “Would'cha lookit that...” he mutters. No explosions. No interrogations. The only thing Soldier notices is the name “Mario” in the corner of the screen.  
  
The stereotypical italian little man with the mustache starts running whenever Engineer presses on the cross formed button. The figure jumps and runs, until engineer accidentally falls into a pit, the figure tumbles out of the screen, accompanied by a strange jingle. “D'ah, shucks. Guess ah died there.”  
“I'll try this now!”  
  
Soldier has snatched the device from Engineers hands. Compared to Engineer, Soldier's movements with the figure where frantic and spastic. He just pressed down on several buttons, hoping for a miracle to happen.  
  
“Ya ain't doin' it right Jane.” Engie gentles his hand and then starts guiding his fingers over the buttons in time. “Ya press that cross here and jump like this.”  
Soldier mumbles a few syllables, before continuing with Engineer watching. “Here we go, I'm gonna---” He walks only two steps, before running into a small moving object, giving him a game over screen.  
  
“What? What the hell was that now?--”  
“Jane ya dummy, ya gotta jump over that thing. “Engineer chuckles amused. “Jump? Over that...potato on legs? Hah! I'm not going to _jump_ over my enemies and escape like the beanpole! A real man stands his place and _fights_!” Soldier grinds his teeth as he charges the figure towards the enemy. “I'm gonna snap your sissified neck, you scum sucking fruitbasket, oorah---!”  
It came no surprise when the device once again showed him a game over screen.  
  
“Dammit!” Soldier growls. “You godforsaken, spaghetti-munching---”  
  
Engineer had a great time watching the angry man fail at each enemy they encountered and thus starting at the beginning each time. Oddly enough though, Soldier kept going and going, until he at least learned that jumping on the enemies head would make them perish, and found something that looked like a safe station, for whenever he died after that strange looking construct that nearly looked like a pixelated flagpole, he would restart at this point. The room quick filled with the same pesky noises and grunts and gripes that Scout had emitted before, coming from the two men. One of them was laughing, one of them raging and throwing insults at everything and everyone that killed him in the game.

 

* * *

 

About two hours later, there was a knock at Scouts door. Scouts throws the baseball magazine on his bed and stalks over the piles of emptied atomic bonks towards the door. He is greeted by the sight of the two men that had shooed him out of the room a while ago, Soldier's red face, pout on his scowling face and askew helmet dangling from his head, and Engineer's rather content gaze with arms behind his back. Scout blinks back at the men; if they really just had sex in that messhall, it must have probably been the strangest sex.  
  
“You two old farts done makin' out on the table now?”  
Engineer laughs at that again, and Soldier hunches his shoulders in slight embarrassment.  
“Ah, we're done, a'right.” Engineer grins, knowing this teases the boy and his man even more. Scout sticks out his tongue and makes a guttural sound of disgust.  
  
“Blegh, you two are jus' weird. Why tha hell you wanted to speak me? Just to rub that further in mah face?”  
“Nah, we noticed ya left this here. Thought we shoulda oughta give it back to ya.”  
Engineer holds out the gray box.  
“Oh, there it was! Jeez, it was lookin' for this the whole time---”  
  
Scout exclaimed, yet before reaching out, his hand jerked back. “Oh god, I'm swearin', if that thing's _sticky_ or anything---”  
“Boy, ah was jokin' before, nothin' ta worry about.”  
Scout still hesitated. Then he slipped his hand under his shirt and reached out for his toy with his hands covered by fabric.  
  
“Fine, but I swear, you guys gonna pay me a new one if you did some naughty stuff on this!”  
“None naughty stuff, ah'm swearin' to mah grannys grave!” Engineer nudged the Soldier next to him. “Ah got a witness there.”  
Soldier straightened his posture and saluted. “Sir, yes sir.”  
Scout shrugged. “Fine. Eh, thanks I guess?”  
Its only when the two older men leave that Scout looks down at the screen of the toy.

The end credits of the game where rolling over the screen. With astonishment Scout figures – the two had been playing on it themselves; and finished the game.  
  
  


 


	6. Day 6 - Injury

The black jeans stretching over muscular tights combined with the skin tight raven black shirt and ten-gallon hat turned out to be very distracting. Exactly how Engineer had planned it. Every outfit suited the Soldier well, but this one in particular the texan would remember to make him wear more often in near future. Engineer remembered to drink the sight all in before they would enter the city. Giving men dubious gazes there could be dangerous after all.   
  
Soldier had begged the Engineer over a few weeks now to take him downtown to Texas, to where he was raised and grew up in. After the third week of daily asking and probing, Engineer gave in, and planned a weekend trip with him to Bee Caves neighbor city, which still had the old western flair. He figured the veteran would like it. Soldier had to admit, the surroundings looked way different from what he had seen in the old western movies he watched as a child. The saloons where refurbished to modern bars, every shop that sold guns and equestrian equipment now where standing empty, used as apartments or were replaced by souvenir shops.   
  
“So, what'cha thinkin', Solly?” Engineer asked. “Is it about what'cha imagined a western town ta look like?”  
  
“I imagined less civilians, and more horses.” Soldier tilted up his hat a little. “Well, if'n ya want horses, ya shoulda oughta asked me to drive ya to a farm. Ain't no horses crossin' this anymore, hoss.”  
  
“What a shame! A true western city needs horses, and a sheriff too.”  
  
“Well, ain't no sheriff around here anymore either. We jus' got these fellas over there.” Engineer pointed his thumb at the two policemen leaning against the fence and munching on donuts.   
  
Even though half of the true western feeling was gone, most people crossing their ways weren't looking any different from them either. Ten-gallon hats, cowboy boots, some even still wore chaps around their legs.   
“So this is where you've grown up...” Soldier mutters. “A Western Town without any western cultures left.”   
 “ Texas ain't jus' cowboys and indians, son. Ah dunno what'cha saw in 'em movies ya talked about, but ah can tell ya, those times are over for good.”   
  
Soldier was a little disappointed, hearing duels and lasso-swinging wasn't something common in today's time.   
“Did you still witness any of this at least in your youth? A true red-blooded texan should grow up witnessing the heat of a shooting, or knowing how to ride a horse properly at least.”   
“Ah, well, Ah know quite a lot about ridin' horses and bulls, don'tcha worry about that. But besides that...most part was 'bout hangin' around mah granddad's workshop, or shootin' ranges. Can't remember much of what this town looked like when Ah was still a button, but much didn't change. Well, one or two more liquor shops added. But, it's still home. Y'know, ah still remember that time mah granddad took me here for the annual shootin' festival...”  
  
Their heavy steps where accompanied by the rustle of the metal spurs on their boots. Sometimes people passing would stare at the two men, and judge from the distance what kind of relation they must have. But neither really seemed to notice. Soldier was staring down at the smaller man, a light smile on his face as he listened to his story as they strolled along the road, while Engineer hooked his thumbs into his belt, sometimes gesticulating to aim an imaginary weapon. Soldier could stare at him for hours when he was caught in reminiscing, could watch his green eyes beam with every memory that comes back to his mind, could watch him smile and frown at certain events.  
  
It's when their laughter die down and they fall back into a comfortable small silence that Engineer feels Soldier's hand very close to his own, fingers furtively snaking around his own, desperate to hold his own. Engineer hesitates. He wishes he could do the same, and lock them with the taller mans, but – he knows he shouldn't. In the car, about an hour before they arrived, Engineer had stopped at the side of the road to explain the man that any kind of hand holding, kissing, hugging or other displays of affection were taboo in the city. They would have all the time for this when they would go back to Engineers ranch.   
  
Soldier didn't seem to really understand, and promptly misinterpreted it until Engineer explained it to him – in his home, a man is supposed to be with a woman. Not with another man. He had witnessed often enough the rather cruel treatment couples like him and Soldier would receive, and starting any fights with fanatic hateful people was the very least he wanted today.   
“It's for your own safety, Soldier.” he had explained. And even though the veteran had insisted to be a free american and free to do whatever he wishes, Engineer had begged him to, for once, just listen to him. Now, Engineer is aching for the contact, just as much as his lover, and god, the way the shirt and jeans hug Soldier's chiseled frame didn't help either.   
  
But he refuses. Demonstratively, Engineer moves his fingers from the soft grip and places his hand back to his belt. To get their minds off of the tense feeling between the two, Engineer suggests to take him to the shooting range Grandfather Radigan Conagher had taken him often to, and Soldier followed. The range was located behind the city, outside on the large field where a cattle was peacefully grazing.   
  
The first time Soldier was given a deer rifle, he was instantly griping that he won't be using the same gun as 'the hobbit' as he likes to call the aussie from their team. He was a commando after all and not some piss-throwing camping coward. But Engineer just mumbles dry comments, picking up his own gun, and with a quick second of focusing, he shot, and hit the prop in the shape of a pheasant that was twenty feet standing on a hay bail.   
Soldier stared at the texan in what could be interpreted as astonishment and awe.  
  
“What a shame, bein' beaten by a 'coward hidin' behind his lil' toys' in shootin', huh?” Engineer drawls with that wicked grin stretched over his lips. Soldier scowls, and instantly grabs his own rifle, aiming, and shooting way off the target. Engineer chuckles, and the proceeds to help him along, holding his arm correctly, lowering or lifting the gun. It takes about three tries for the Soldier to finally hit the pheasant prop. “Hah! You saw that, Engie? On first try!”  
“Ya mighty good at bullshittin', Solly.” Engineer rolled his eyes.   
  
The shooting continued for a while, until Dell figured it was time to take off now and get some dinner somewhere. But however, the didn't get far. The two men walked peacefully together back into the town, when they heard a loud voice behind them.  
  
“Hey, you! Faggots!”   
The two men frowned, turning around to look back at where ever that voice came from. They stared at a man, probably about ten years younger than them, sturdy and musclebound, a cigar stuck on his chipped lips. There was a glimmer in his brown eyes that gave the tinkerer an uneasy feeling.  
“What'cha jus' called us there, boy?” Engineer turned around.   
“What? Ya two inbred-queers deaf?” the man spat on the floor, right in front of their feet. “I called ya a faggot! Ya want me ta spell it for ya?”  
  
Engineer felt like a stone was dropped on his stomach. Heat seeped into his face as anger took over his senses. “You better be taking that back or you gonna spell that without your _teeth!_ ” Soldier snarled next to the texan. But the man just smirked smugly. “Punchin' before talkin', eh? Shouldn't have thought different from two ugly rednecks like you.” He could feel Jane tense up so suddenly, Engineer knew to grab his wrist and hold it tight before he would get into a fight.   
“Look, buddy, this town's already fallin' apart, we ain't be needin' two queers like you two here either, holdin' hands, probably suckin each others cock behind the next house...”  
  
Engineer was an exceptional amiable and calm person. But this man just hurt his pride, and by god, hurting a Conagher's pride was the last thing a living man should do.  
“Son, you're one more word away from me layin' ya out!” Engineers grip around Soldiers wrist tightened.  
“Is that a threat, _faggot_?”  
“Don't call him that!” Soldier yelled, and despite Engineer holding his arm, his other arm was now swinging and punching the man right in the jaw.  
  
Engineer jerked back by the sheer strength the Soldier swung into the man's face. The man lied on the floor, groaning, before getting up slowly, whiping away the blood from his split lip. “Ah was gonna make that less bloody for ya, but fuck that!”  
  
Something sharp glistened in the evening sun. Before either of the mercenaries could react, the knife thrust out, and just barely missed Soldier's upper arm, cutting deep into fabric and skin. Jane yelped and jerked back, but didn't hold back to dash towards the man and swing his fist into the pit of his stomach, on his right, an other man that witnessed the fight ( and obviously didn't miss the fact the larger man was a target for their hate) had joined now, boot raised and kicking hard against Soldier's ribcage, forcing him down to his knees.   
  
Engineer gripped the other man and tore him away from Soldier. “Leave him alone, ya bastard!!” He shouted, and promptly found himself flung to the floor with the attacker on top. Soldier ripped himself from the assault he received to grab the man on top of Dell and throw him into the dust.   
  
Soldier swung his fist against the man's temple, knees pressed on top of his arm to disable him from escaping.  
“Don't touch him, don't you _dare_ touching him, you maggot!!” Soldier bellowed across the entire street. His paws flung to the man's neck, tightening around it. “I'm going to snap your dirty little neck, you scum-sucking---”  
“Jane, no!” Engineer barely had the time to pull the raging Soldier off of their attacker. Engineer barely had time to look at the mess they had left on the two men, before he could hear the sirens of the police driving close.   
  
Engineer is fast to act, grabbing Soldier by his waist and picking him up, carrying him as fast as his feet could carry him, while Soldier kept screaming the wildest vulgarities at both the police and the two assaulter.  
“Let me go, Dell, I'll kill them, I'll goddamn eat their ribs and rip out their souls!”  
“Soldier, shut the hell up!!” Engineer shouted even louder.

Engineer wouldn't slow down his steps until they arrived back at the car, squeezing the Soldier to the passenger seat, and himself behind the wheel, flooring the gas pedal and storming down the road. A few kilometers and minutes later, Engineer stops the car at the side of the street. Both men were still panting once they were sure they had left the crime scene without being followed. Just then does Engineer dare to turn towards the man sitting next to him.   
  
He looked terrible. There was blood streaming down his nose, a dark ring with crimson specs stretched around his right eye, his lower lip split. His black shirt was ripped around his upper arm and blood was flowing out of the cut and soaked into the fabric. “Oh lord...Jane.” Engineer lifted his hand up to his face and breathed out loudly.  
“It's nothing, Engie. It doesn't even hurt.” Soldier tried to appease the texan, but winced once he moved in his seat. His ribs hurt a whole lot from the kick he had received, not to mention the ache in his jaw and temples from the other mans punches.   
  
“Don'tcha goddamn bullshit me!” Engineer shouted. “I told'ya, goddamn, Jane, I told'ya no to start any trouble today!”  
“He called you names and attacked you, Engie! Nobody attacks my man!” Soldier defended himself.  
“This could'a been settled peacefully, we could have ignored him and carried on, but you HAD to get violent!”  
“I was protecting you sissy, and this is what I get in return?”  
  
“If'n ya hadn't went ahead and held my hand back then even when ah told'ya not to, this ain't never happened in the first place!”  
Engineer falls back into his seat. “Now see what happened, jus' because ya wouldn't listen to me for one goddamn time!”  
“I can hold your hand whenever I goddamn _feel_ like it, maggot! I am a free man of---”  
“But you wouldn't be hurt because of me, FOR FUCKS SAKE!!”  
  
Usually, Soldier would yell even louder when Engineer would raise his voice like this, but now he stays quiet. He watches the younger man sink into his seat with a loud sigh, hand resting on his bruised, despondent face. Soldier hated to see his man so down, no matter how grave the situation was. Cars rushed past them, and lighted inside the truck for a few seconds, before leaving the two back in darkness again. Soldier still stares at Engineer, and waits for something, a reaction, a movement. He still remembers Engineer is hurt. His hand fishes inside the pocket of his coat he had descended on the backseat and snatch the cloth Engineer carries around.   
  
Engineer sighed again. He almost didn't notice as Soldier picked up the cloth and gently patted it against Engineer face, cleaning it from dust and blood. “Jane, what'cha....doing there...?” he said, warily. Soldier lifted his hand to hold the mans jaw and turn his head to look at him. He cleaned the cuts on the mans lip and cheekbones and eyebrows, and kissed every spot after it was free from crusted blood and sand. Engineer let it all happen without struggling.   
  
“I'm sorry, Dell.” Soldier mutters after he kissed the bridge of his nose.  
“No, Jane, Ah'm sorry. Ah shouldn't have...Ah shouldn't be...”  
Jane muffled his speech by gently patting the split lip, before giving it a tender kiss. “You don't need to feel sorry about anything.”  
“It's mah fault they got'cha like this.”  
  
“It's not, Dell.”  
“It feels like it though...”  
“It's quite alright. Having you at my side is worth the pain...” Soldier assured him, before gently nuzzling the man's face, noses and foreheads pressing against each other.   
Engineer bit his lip in order to contain any emotional outbreak. His mechanic hand took the cloth from the mans hand and returned the favor, carefully cleaning Soldier's blood from his nose and lips, while his real hand rubbed his thumb over his cheekbone.   
  
“Ah'm not ever gonna let anybody hurt ya, Jane. No mother-hubbard is gonna lay a finger on ya without me breakin' their whole hand.”  
“I'd love to see that. That poor guy's gonna scream for his mama for sure when Dell Conagher's wrath comes upon them.”  
“Heck yeah they will.”   
The two lovers shared a long, deep kiss. They only part when Soldier lifts his hand to his chest again with a hiss in pain.   
  
“Ya holdin' up, partner?” Engineer asks until he sees the tent producing from the man's shirt around the height of his chest.  
“Oh look, Engie, I think I broke a rib.” Soldier says, his voice in a mix of surprise, and pain. “Never had it producing out like this before... quick, Engie, take a photo, Demo won't believe that happened to me today!”  
“Boy, we gonna get'cha to the hospital first.” Engineer mutters dryly, and floors the gas pedal.

 


	7. Day 7 - Cooking Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i decided to not do this challenge in order but posting the chapters i have already written down.   
> I shall put them all in the right order at the end of the challenge.
> 
> Until then, remember to leave kudos and comments ;)

Instead of sunlight breaking through the curtains and tickling him awake, or being gently woken up by soft kisses on his neck and shoulder, the Engineer jerks out of sleep by a terribly loud rattle coming from the kitchen. 

First he assumed it was just a bird that flew into a window, or a wild critter outside roaming through his garbage can. He grunts, and turns in his bed to get back to sleep. But when he heard the loud clanking of pots downstairs, a loud feral screech, and a very strange smell wavering through the door, he was fully awake and aware. 

Years on the battlefield had made the tinkerer alert and quick to react. With one hand fishing for his pants, the other fumbled for his gun he had always lying close to the bed, just in case some rascal thought they could invade the Conagher Ranch without getting hogtied and castrated. Or, at least, get shot in the foot as a minor warning. Whoever thought he could just break into his house and wreck his kitchen had better start praying. 

Barefoot and wearing nothing but the old dark blue overall, he sneaks out the door, down the stairs, into the living room and behind the corner to see....  
a large man with wide shoulders and short dark blonde hair roaming through the fridge, with a strange furry creature sitting on top of his shoulder. 

The Soldier, back turned to him, standing in nothing but underwear and wifebeater heading back to the stove, cursing under his breath, His beloved raccoon Lieutenant Bites clawing to his shoulder and cooing and screeching whenever his master would jerk away from the hot stove. The Soldier dropped something, and the raccoon instantly climbs down to grab whatever food his owner had dropped. The entire house was filled with the stench of burned food.  
  
“Jane...” Engineer puffed out a breath, and placed his revolver down on the table. The Soldier jerked slightly, a pan in his hand from which smoke and steam emits, and something frying inside that definitely shouldn't be that black...  
“Jane, what in tarnation---?”  
“Good morning, Engie.” Soldier salutes as if the mess he had caused in the kitchen wasn't noticeable, the progress making him let go of the spatula in his hand that clanked down into the mess of kitchen utensils, egg shells and bacon stripes on the floor.  
  
“Soldier what in Sam's Hill ya doin' here? ”  
“It's morning time, Engie, approximately 0800 hours in the morning and I'm reporting for breakfast duties.”  
“Breakfast du--- no, ah don't mean _that!_ ” Engineer points at him. “What the hell are _you_ doin' here? And the raccoon? And why does mah kitchen look like a pigsty?!”  
  
Soldier looked at the floor. It didn't seem like he had actually noticed the mess he had caused until now, but quickly turned the subject back to answer his first question.  
“Engie, according to our relationship being outside the range of platonic now, it is my duty to pamper you with all I can. I have been waiting outside the door for the last five hours in order to start your weekend with a good American breakfast.”  
“You've been waitin' outside mah door to--- ah, hell!”   
  
Engineer is quick to scoot into the kitchen and turn off the stove before it would catch fire.   
“And get that venom outta my kitchen!!” Engineer grabbed the raccoon and quickly threw it onto the couch in the living room, quick enough before the rabid critter could bite or scratch him in protest.   
“Jesus Christ on a bicycle, Soldier, how could'cha let this all burn like this?” Several pots and pans were covered in dried, grease and burned black on the bottoms. Engineer only touched the hotplate for a second and already jerked his hand away and sucking on the burning spot on his finger.  
  
“This food is not following my orders, it's cooking way too fast for me to react in time!”  
“Cuz ya put 'em temperatures way too high, ya dummy!” Engineer cursed under his breath as he examined the burn on his hand.  
“That's alright, Engie, it hurts for a second, but then it just goes numb. See? I only burned myself five times.”  
The Soldier smirked proudly as he raised his hand, his palm literally covered in dark red burn marks.   
  
Engineer quickly pulls the Soldier away from the seething stove and into the living room, quickly bandaging Soldier's and his own burns, giving them both a minute to breathe through and letting the kitchen cool down.   
“A'right, jus' to be clear now – ya've been drivin' all the damn way from the base to Bee Cave on our vacation day, waited in front of mah house the entire night, then broke through the window jus' to make me breakfast?”  
“Well....yes, I did.” Soldier shrugs as if it was the most common thing to do. “It is my duty as your friend to care for you.”  
“Jane, ya certainly shouldn't have stood at mah doorstep in the cold jus' to _cook_ for me.”  
“Yes, I had to! I know your sleep schedule is strict and early, and thus I didn't want to disturb you from your sissy beauty sleep at midnight...”   
  
“Beauty sleep...” Engineer sneers.   
  
“Thus, I had to wait until at least the sun would be rising and thirty minutes before your estimated wake-up time to be greeted with a good nutritious morning meal to start your day. You are weak, you need more vitamins, Engie! More meat in your coddled diet of...whatever you eat.”  
“Vitamins, huh? Since when do eggs and bacon have vitamins, ah wonder...”  
“Not relevant, Engineer. Fact is, my orders were to provide you with breakfast, but...It has seemed that your kitchen has betrayed its use on me.”   
  
Soldier looked very downbeat all of the sudden that his plan hadn't worked out the way he wanted it. Engineer sighs. “Ah know ya meant it well, hoss. But look at that mess – “ Engineer pointed back at the kitchen from where still smoke and bad burning smells traveled through the rooms. “'Tis gonna take ages ta clean that up...”  
  
“Me and Lieutenant Bites will help you clean up, Engie, that's the least we can do!”  
“Later. And ah ain't gonna let ya raccoon get into ma kitchen anymore, that's for sure.”   
“Bites is a magnificent cooking partner!” Jane protested.   
“Ah ain't so fond of getting' his rabies though.” Engineer throws a gaze at the critter that growls indignantly.   
  
“Nuthin' personal, lil' fella! However- First'o'all, I ain't gonna let ya get a hand on mah cookin' tools. But we should get somethin' ta bite anyway, hm?” Engineer gently patted Soldier's shoulder, before getting up and grabbing the gunslinger that always lied on the table ready to get to use. Soldier follows, a little uncertain of what the texan had planned for them.   
  
“Well, we ain't gonna be usin' this for now.” he tossed the black burned pan and pot into the sink, and picking up the eggshells from the floor.   
“Well, lets see what stuff ya haven't burned yet, huh?” Engineer opened the fridge, and saw, that Soldier had, indeed wasted almost the entire package of bacon. Not to mention, the honeyjar that stood open in the fridge and most content spilled over other groceries.  
  
“Boy, did'cha nosh on the honey?”  
  
“It was like this before, Lieutenant Bites can confirm that!” Soldier turns to the raccoon sitting on the kitchen counter. “Right, Bites?” the raccoon cooed disinterested, and continued nibbling on the raw bacon stripe he found on the floor.  
  
“Well...Looks like we gonna have to go with eggs huh? Say, Solly, ya like omelet for breakfast?”  
“What's omelet?”  
“Don't tell me ya never had omelet before.”  
Soldier shrugged, obviously clueless.  
“Well, then, prepare ya taste buds for sum adventure!”  
  
Engineer carried out the last eggs Soldier hadn't burned yet, leek, tomatoes, ham, mushroom, scallions and salt and pepper. He ordered Soldier to wash and cut onions and tomatoes, which Soldier did. Washing was going well, but certainly not the cutting. Soldier rather squished the tomatoes than actually cutting them in small pieces. “No, no, Sal, not with force.” Engie grabbed Soldier's hand and carefully guided him to cut the tomato in thin slices, so long until Soldier learned how to. At least, for the next few slices to come. The last few grew in size, and were unevenly cut, but Soldier just looked rather happy he got it right somehow. Engineer supervised Soldier as he cut the mushrooms, while Engineer peeled and cut the onions. His eyes began to tickle and water while cutting, a tear rolling down his cheek.  
  
“Engie, are you crying?” Soldier asks in a mix of wonder and indignation.  
“Nope, ah, jus'...” Engineer brushed the wrist over his watering eyes. “The damn onions...”  
“Gimme that, you lil' nance!” Soldier rolled his eyes, and grabbed the plate with half-cut onions.  
“Crying from a goddamn vegetable...and I've been _fighting_ with your kind side by side!”  
  
But soon, Soldier himself felt the burn in his eyes, and unlike the Engineer, he even softly yammered as tears rolled down his face.   
  
“Who's the nance now, huh?”  
“Nnngrrh.” Soldier growled slightly.  
  
Engineer occasionally ate a little piece of the cut tomato, or handed it to the raccoon that gratefully nibbled on it, or even fed it to the Soldier next to him.   
“This doesn't look good yet.” Soldier mutters as he mixed the stirred eggs with the vegetables. “We must add some more..., ah, here we go!” Soldier grabbed the tube of barbecue sauce. “Sal, what are ya---?” he couldn't stop soldier from pouring a large amount of the dark smoky sauce into the mixture of eggs and vegetables.   
  
Engineer watched as Soldier roamed the kitchen for more unnecessary ingredients that would make their breakfast more 'american' and 'nutricious', and just barely stopped the Soldier before he would add the whole jar of honey into it. At least to make Soldier happy, they added a spoonful. Also more barbecue sauce. And a large amount of garlic and chili powder. “To keep the crouton away from you.” Soldier had explained, and for once, Engineer was laughing loudly together with the rugged man.  
  
“So, ya two really been sittin' at mah doorstep all night long?” Engineer asked, as he absentmindedly started frying the ham stripes.   
“Affirmative! I am pleased to hear Lieutenant Bites screeches of hypothermia and hunger didn't wake you up!”  
“Y'know, ya could just have rang the bell and ah would have let ya both inside.” Engineer closed in a little, his hip nudging the taller man's thigh. “Ah would've loved mahself sum big, handsome man ta keep me warm at night.”  
Engineer's hand gave the man's cushioned backside a furtive squeeze through the underpants he wore. Soldier jerked and nearly dropped the bowl he was holding. But he couldn't hide the blush on his face, and a friendly slap on Engineer's own rear.

Before they would forget about their meal cooking however, Engineer quickly grabbed the bowl from Jane's hands and poured the golden brown mixture on top of the ham stripes.   
“Now, Sal, that's the trick with makin' omelet! Ya gotta turn it, jus' in the right moment! Ya gotta make sure it ain't too liquid before it's gonna be--”  
Soldier however hadn't listened, and instead just uncaredly stirred the entire content inside the pan with a spoon without any clue how to properly cook their breakfast.  
  
“What did you say, Engie?” Soldier asks, not even looking as he spilled half the content outside the pan.  
“Ah...scrambled eggs it is then...” Engineer muttered.  
On the second try, they got it right. Engineer carefully flipped the round egg-pancake, and repeating the process with the next few omelets, while Soldier was still happy with his scrambled egg creation he had cooked all on his own, without burning anything, or setting the kitchen on fire.  
  
“This is the first time I didn't blow up any stoves. This is a great accomplishment.” Soldier beamed. “Thanks for cooking with me your breakfast, Engie.”  
“Ah, it's nothin'. Hope this ain't givin' me cancer, eh?” He chuckled.  
They sit down at the large dining table, eyeing whatever new, maybe improved recipe of omelet Soldier had created. They tasted, and, to Engineers surprise, it didn't even taste that terrible. A little spicy perhaps. It felt more like eating a piece of barbecued spareribs too, with the huge amount of barbecue sauce Soldier had mixed into this. But all in all, it certainly didn't taste too bad.  
  
“So, ah, how ya like it?”   
“This is the best ration I have ever tasted.” Soldier mutters in bewilderment. Well, considering his usual diet consisted of cold ribs or canned noodles and vegetables, that wasn't too hard. He wondered when the last time Soldier had eaten a freshly cooked meal.  
“This is what the president must eat all the time.”  
“Well, how we wanna call this beauty then? The american omelet?”  
“Huh...thought omelet was an american dish.”  
“Nope. 'tis a swiss meal alright.”  
  
Engineer only watched as Soldier froze in his spot, before slowly shoving his table into the Engineer's direction. “Hm? Ya full already?”  
“Engie, you just filled me with european pinko food?! Are you out of your non-existent mind?! Quick, call the Medic, he must pump out my stomach, before---”  
“Son, Put your fundament back on that chair, and ya better be eatin' up this now, ya not gonna leave this table until ah see that plate empty!”  
Engineer glared back at the Soldier, his voice sharp and threatening. And, Soldier, bravely ate the whole plate. Not without secretly handing a handful of his dish to Lieutenant Bites whenever Engineer wouldn't watch.   
  
  


 


	8. Day 8 - Arranged Marriage AU

Dell stood in front of the mirror, fixing his fly for the third time now. He was, par to the course, slightly nervous.  
  
The first time Mother Conagher had announced to his son that he was going to get married, Dell had believed she was joking. He. All out of all the people, he was going to get forced to live with a person he didn't love.   
  
It seemed so alien to him, so...very strange. Knowing, he was going to be tied to a woman he had never seen before. His entire freedom would be taken within a single day. His future, predestined. His will, ignored. He had of course refused, but neither father nor mother had heard his plea to discharge this crazy idea. He wasn't even told how it came and for which reason they decided this, only for the rare information that it would mean more estate and thus more money, or something like this.  
  
It was crazy, seeing himself, 40 years old and a hard working Engineer, suited in his best suit he could find, being told that he would now just...go ahead and marry.   
Marriage was something Dell did not want at all. Never. He was always glad being a bachelor with a fine job, being free. This was now in the past however, he would come to realize.   
  
Mother had spend the last thirty minutes telling Dell all about Jane. Build well, beautiful blue eyes, dark blonde, short hair, lively personality, maybe a little rough sometimes, doesn't talk much...oddly obsessed with keeping buckets around themselves, and having a pet raccoon. “Dell Conagher, in what kind of strange nightmare have ya found yerself in.” he had muttered to himself. In the conversation, his mother had mentioned the pronoun “He” a few times, and each time Dell thought he had misunderstood it, or she was joking.   
  
She was, in fact, not joking.   
  
The day before their supposed marriage would come, the families were at least merciful enough to give them one single meeting before the big day. Dell was called to wait at the entrance door to greet his new bride. Outside, he appeared as calm as even possible. Inside, he was scared like death itself would arrive any second now. It rang at the door, and mother opened the door.  
  
Instead of a small woman in a black dress, face probably covered in bad make up and walking in way too large shoes, he was greeted by a tall man in a similar suit as his own. For a moment, Dell thought this was the brother of the girl he was going to meet, but …  
“Dell, Honey. This is Jane. Remember I told you about him?”  
  
 _Him._  
Dell felt like this was all a very big big joke, and any second they would reveal the cameras that had recorded his reaction on this surreal event. But nothing of this happened. Dell stared back at the tall man in front of him, who obviously stared back to eye the shorter man. He was, indeed tall. About a head taller than himself. Ashblonde, short cut hair, very muscular judging from the with of the suit he wore, a masculine angular face with bright blue eyes. It was, admittedly, the first thing Dell noticed.   
  
Throughout the dinner, neither of them spoke to each other, if not silent, distanced eyeing and observing. Dell was still digesting the news that this was the man he was going to call his husband in future, and while his mind was working on this thought, his eyes followed the mans movements. He noticed that Jane was almost completely avoiding eyecontact when he felt he was being watched. He would act aloof and clumsy even, dropping forks or salt and pepper on the table and floor, before muttering a roughed apology.   
  
Even though Dell was still not fully understanding the situation, he found himself in an odd haze of inspecting the man. He wasn't ravishing handsome or beautiful, nothing like the magazine models or down town girls. But there was something nevertheless in the way the man moved, talked ( if he even talked), something in that rough voice and weather-beaten face that Engineer would define as...attractive, perhaps. He would find it attractive at least, if he was attracted to men.  
  
Later in the afternoon, Dell found Jane standing outside their little ranch, leaning against the fence and smoking a cigar. He figured, if he was going to live with this man in future, he should perhaps approach him. Never talking to him was no option anyway.  
“Ya got some light?”   
  
Jane looked up from the floor he had been staring at for a while. He watched the bald man approach, with a cigarette between his lips. Jane stared back at him, before he pulled out a lighter from inside his coat pocket and handed it over to the man.  
“Much obliged.” Dell said softly, before lighting his cigarette up, and leaning next to the man against the fence.  
“Ya mind?”  
Jane shakes his head. A few moments prolong in silence, smoke rising up into the air.  
“Ya smokin' cigars?”  
  
“Yes sir.”  
Jane rested the cigar between is fingers to speak more clearly. “Ain't ya gettin' dizzy from inhalin' this?”  
“Negatory...”   
He watches as he drags a long breath from it again, and blows it out again seconds later. This guy must have organs made of steel if he could keep up with that.  
“Ya do realize ya shoulda oughta puff 'em, right?”  
“Puffing is for women, tax payer.”   
“Your lungs won't think that way, son.”  
“My lungs are under my command and will do as I tell them.”  
  
Mother was right – he had quite a character. Very stubborn too. Dell tentatively reaches for his coatpocket and draws a malboro for the man. “Try these. If'n ya wanna give yer body a break.”  
Jane eyed the slimmer cigarettes with incredulity in his gaze, but eventually lighted on the offered tobacco.   
Silence set between the two again. Just to keep the two at ease, Dell continued in a more amiable way.  
  
“Well, uhm...so, how a likin' Texas, Jane?”  
“It's very warm here...” Jane concluded. “Ah, well, ya should witness this place in summer. Boy, ah'm tellin' ya, ain't for the faint of heart.”   
“Couldn't say the same about Missouri. The damn weather changes every twenty minutes.”  
  
Throughout the course of the day, Dell finds out a lot of other things from the man. Lives in Missouri, served the army for ten years, worked as a part time lawyer for a while until he was kicked out, fought in second world war on his own account. He figured, the man still kept some of that military attitude, which may sounded intimidating from the outside, but Dell couldn't help but find it rather amusing. Dell found himself intrigued by the mans past life, and whenever one story about his life ended, he felt the need to ask for more. And although Jane didn't speak it out loud, he wanted the same whenever Dell spoke about his own past. He wanted to learn more about the bizarre little man from Bee Cave, and Dell wanted to know more about the rough man from the Midwest.   
  
It was until early evening that both men were finally at some kind of ease, talking, laughing together sometimes and at some point, they forgot about what exactly they talked about. Dell was just listening to the Soldier explaining how he survived for five years on his own in Poland, when he remembered how he had called the man something he would label as attractive.   
  
By now, he was sure – Jane was attractive indeed. He had a rather gorgeous smile as well, when it was soft around the edges and genuine. There was a strange power emitting from his being that Dell had never witnessed around anybody else he had met.  
In the very late evening, Jane figured it was time to return to his hotel for the night. The two promised husbands exchanged a glance with each other, Jane giving a perfect stoic salute and a more or less awkward handshake, before Jane would climb into the car and drive back to his hotel. He couldn't really help but bend over his seat as he drove off in order to get a last glance at the man standing outside, leaning against the fence, smoking his cigarettes.   
  
The next day, the ceremony was quick and painless. They were given certificates that would label them as officially married, and were given rings. Jane had trouble with fitting it on since his hands were quite larger than Dells own, but with a little help, it fitted at least around his little finger. They were pushed into a limousine that would drive them to their arranged honeymoon house outside Bee Cave, a beautiful cabin close to a lake, in which the two men would start to experience the first days of marriage.  
  
Jane had announced he would go and take a swim in the lake since he had to skip morning training. Dell figured a little bit of sport would do him good as well. He joined the man in the cold water, and as it was first a strangely awkward experience, with Jane making Dell his fitness trainee, they soon started to act like two children, splashing water into each others faces, seeing who could swim the fastest or dive the longest.   
  
When he wouldn't notice, Dell would take in the features of the half-naked man across from him. He was shaped so swell, taught muscles moving under scarred yet soft looking skin, grayed hair growing on chest, abdomen, arms and legs...  
He was somehow interesting to watch when he would dive in the water and swim to the other side of the lake, breaching through the surface of the water and shaking his head to get water out of hair and eyes. When ever their eyes would lock however, Jane turned away, and continued whatever he was doing, acting like the eyecontact was just brief and not intentional.   
  
Its late as they dry off from their bath experience, have a good meal, talk a little more about likes and what they are planning to do on their one week honeymoon. To Dells surprise, Jane asks if he could show him the workshop he owns. He, of course, agreed. Dell lies on the only king-sized bed the house contained, his fingers playing with the ring around his finger. He traces the form and shape of the metallic ring for a while, until he hears the door of the bathroom open and Jane exiting, a towel draped over his shoulders, in a thin shirt and long gray pajama pants.   
  
“Mister Conagher, I inform you that I have used your ---”  
“Dagnabbit, Jane, put that voice of yar's a decibel lower, would'cha?”  
“Apologies, Sir.”  
“Look, jus'...call me Dell, okay? None of that “Sir” stuff, a'right? We ain't in the military.”  
Jane blinked at him confused, but then continued. “Uh...Dell, I was going to ask if it was fine with you if I used your hygiene-products...”  
Dell smiles, and nods his head.  
“That's totally fine, hoss. Ya smell good, if Ah may say so mahself.”  
  
Jane grinned softly, before silence fell upon them both once again. Jane eyed the free space on the bed, next to Dell. In order to skirt around that topic, Dell moved from the spot he sat in.  
“Uh, so, ah, I guess we gonna have to-- which side you prefer?”  
  
Jane stared at the bed, before he shrugged. “Ah, well, then...ah take this one here, yeah?” Dell lies down on the spot he had been sitting on. And Jane carefully lies down next to him. If the bed wouldn't be so small, it would have probably left room for at least a little bit of privacy for each of them. Instead, Dell could almost feel Jane, could almost feel his skin against his own, smell him and sense him. Dell tried to squeeze himself to the edge in order to get some free room for them both. They lie in silence for a while.  
  
“Mister Cona-- uh... Dell?” Jane suddenly asks. “Yeah...?” Dell feels a little tense.  
He turns his head to the man. “Are you...happy?”  
Happy..?  
  
Happy? What kind of question was this even? Happy was something Dell hadn't felt since the day he learned he was promised to a person he didn't know, since the day he knows that person was a man, as well. Happy...was not what Dell was. Or at least, not what he would know as happiness. But, there was something else. Something in the entire time he had spend with Jane. It was feeling...good.   
  
“Ah...happy with what, exactly?”  
“Happy, here...with...me.” Jane paused in between.   
“Heh, well...ah gotta say, ah've had worse expectations of this.” Dell admitted. “But...Ah guess that ain't nothin' to worry about, eh? We get along quite well so far, don't we?”  
Jane nods.  
“And, what about you, Jane?”   
“You're...very nice to me, Dell. And...I feel content in your presence. I think that's what happiness is, isn't it?”  
Dell nods.  
“Then, yes, I am happy.” he says.   
  
And then he smiles again. And in the dim light of the bedroom, his smile is truly gorgeous, soft and honest and Dell felt his heart throbbing all of the sudden inside his chest. He swallows. This was going into a direction he could predict already, simply judging by the situation they were in right now. It made him bite his lower lip.  
  
“Is something wrong, Dell?”  
“Ah, uh...Jane...” Dell shifted slightly in the sheets. “Y'know it's our wedding night, right...?”  
“Yes, I know that.” Jane quirks his eyebrow in question. “Why do you mention that?”  
“Then you know that, uhm...usually married couples are supposed to...well...end their special day with...you know what.”  
“I know _what_...?”  
  
“Ah, yknow with uh...conjugal duty.”  
“I don't get it.”  
“Jane, ya dummy.” the Engineer shakes his head and sighs. “We are supposed to have sex tonight.”  
  
That, Jane did understand. His eyebrows lift up a notch as he stares at Dell in a very odd way.   
“Oh...” he breathes then. He wondered what Jane's reaction to this would be, but he wouldn't have guessed the man would be ignorant enough to not know this was tradition.   
  
“Do you...want to?” he hears Jane whisper besides him. Dell turns his head and looks at him again. God, what should he answer to this? Yes? No? Maybe? Every answer sounded wrong in his mind, every answer sounding offending in some way.   
“Ah...Ah don't know.” he says then, his voice very thin all of the sudden. “Do you?”  
Jane hesitated, and then, shrugged too. “I don't know either.”  
  
Silence filled the room again. They stared at each other for a minute or two, waiting for a reaction, a change of mind perhaps, just something that would bring them a step further. A thought crossed his mind. He carefully props himself up on his arms, and Jane followed without hesitating.   
“Y'know, maybe we should...start at a lower level.”  
“Lower level, huh...” Jane mumbled perplexed. “Yeah, y'know, uhm...” Dell rubbed his neck.   
“Maybe we should...kiss first.” He looks back at Jane's eyes. “Would'cha want that...?”  
  
Jane hesitates, and then, he nods slowly, and moves a little closer. Dell moves a little closer too. Feeling timid, they lean forwards, very close, closer than they had yet before. Something inside Dell's chest feels very warm all of the sudden. He could feel Jane's breath on his lip, and his nosetip touching his.  
  
He feels soft lips touch his in a light kiss. Jane's lips are oddly smooth against his, and they move lazily and tentatively over his own. It doesn't last long, as they part and look at each other for a minute.   
“How ya liked that...?” Dell asks. He noticed a light pink shade on the mans cheeks. Jane seemed happy.  
“Can we...can we do this again?” he asked very carefully. Dell bites his lip in order to keep the laughter in. “Yeah...” he carefully leans in again, meeting Jane's lips for the second time.  
  
  
  


 


	9. Day 9 - Spooning

As most of the time, it's past midnight, past the time the teams mechanic should be already asleep. But he isn't. He sits at his table, the room dimmed and only illuminated with the small lamp at his desk, as he leans over several blueprints he just couldn't keep unfinished until tomorrow. It were several ideas for new weaponry for the team, which he later would provide to the administrator, and many different designs and ways of sentries, dispensers and teleporters to try out next round.

He is constantly under the pressure of being a step ahead of RED's Engineer, who was by no means less smart than he was.

Being the teams Engineer, it was a ongoing rivalry, a competition no other mercenary had to keep up with as much as Engie had to. In the corner of the room is his bed, with a stalwart body resting in the sheets, breathing steadily. He had promised Soldier to come and join him in bed shortly after the veteran went to sleep, but now he couldn't detach himself from his work.

He was captured in this specific 'zone', where it was hard to give up on his work in favor of catching up with sleep. An angry huff later, Engineer erased the whole model he drew, and started from the beginning. This wasn't working. But he was close, so close, he had done all the calculations, it _must_ work. Somehow. And he was going to find it out, eventually. If he just keeps repeating this idea, if he just thinks deeper into this, if he just---  
  
He needed a cup of coffee.   
Engineer was just about to move away from his chair and walk downstairs to the kitchen to brew himself some, when he hears the blankets shuffling and a little grunt.

“Engie?”  
Engineer looks over his shoulder to spot the military man blinking at him tiredly.   
“Did ah wake ya up, hombre?”  
“Negatory. Your loud thinking did.”  
“Ah'm thinkin' loudly, huh?”  
“Not in the literal way. But I can hear the gears turning in your noggin from miles away.”

Engineer chuckles, and he sees the veteran smile back at him. There was something about that coarse and earnest patterns of him that seemed to vanish after lights-out.   
Soldier wasn't a man of grace and gentleness, hand holding, cuddles and kisses - simply not a man of romance. But the way he would murmur praises directed to the teams tinkerer in his sleep, or return the softest smiles when nobody but the two of them were watching, or how he would set his voice down a little more, a little softer, a little amiable - perhaps it was his way of being romantic.  
  
“What are you up so late, private?” Soldier murmurs. “You should be in bed by now. We have a few intelligences to collect by tomorrow.”  
And for Soldier, a few chopped off heads to bring back home.  
“I do not want to hear any complaints from your sorry mouth to graze my auditory canal of how 'sore' and 'tired' you are after every mission.”  
“Yeah, yeah, shucks. Reckon ah was a lil' distracted here.” the Texan shoves the stack of paper to the corner of his table, and pinched the bridge of his nose.  
  
“Ah'mma be with ya in a sec. Ah jus' need ta settle a few calculations. Ah'm close, Solly, very close ta crack the code here.”  
And here we go again – Engineer would talk about his newest project, loose focus, sink into his rambling, and Soldier either had to pull him out by shouting some orders, or Engineer would himself notice the blank expression he was given by a man who didn't understand half of the words he was hearing. But, at least, he tried to understand them.

  
“See, ah think ah got a more stable design for mah sentry, so it'll be harder ta get Spy's ta sap it, and easier ta remove 'em french toys from the shell. But ah need more time for this. Ah seem ta have made a mistake somewhere though, it's not really addin' up. Reckon if a use the new design it either gonna affect the bullet velocity, or--”  
  
“Engie...”  
Engineer turned his head over his shoulder. He sees the Soldier had raised the covers invitingly.  
“Rest.”  
  
Engineer sighs. Soldier was right. There is no use stretching the subject when he can get back to this tomorrow. “A'right, A'right. Caught me fadin' out there again.” Engineer removed hardhat and goggles, and stripped himself to the single white shirt and boxers he wore beneath the company issued uniform, flicked the lights out, and moved next to the warm body that belonged to his lover. Just now that he finally got his mind off his work, he feels just how tired he is. Soldier moves a little to grand space for both.   
  
“Sleep now. We have a lot to do tomorrow.” Soldier murmured, half caught by sleep himself. Engineer didn't answer directly. He had turned and watched Soldier swivel his body to face him with his wide back.   
  
He knows, Soldier isn't the man of showing affection other than kisses and touches, he knows it's hard for him to show it, and even harder to receive it. But Engineer nevertheless moves close to the man, wrapping his arms around his torso, and squishing his body into the other man's frame. A leg tangles between Soldiers, his face nuzzle at his trapezius.He is way smaller than the Soldier, and spooning him might look a little strange. But it's oddly comfortable to hold the brawny man against him. At least, until said man would grumble a few words.  
  
“What is that supposed to be? Some half-hearted stranglehold?”  
“Nope. Is called cuddlin'.”  
“Why are you _cuddling_ with me?”   
Soldier sounded generously confused, or indignant, depending on who you ask. He looks over his shoulder back at the smaller man that rubbed his hands along his abs and his face over his shoulder blades.  
  
“Engie, is this some indication for sex? Because I --”  
“Nah, ain't none of that. Jus' some spoonin', is all.”  
“I don't get it.”  
  
Engineer rolled his eyes, but pressed his lips together into a thin line, just so he wouldn't start laughing at how confused the Soldier seemed. Cuddling wasn't something the two would do very often. In fact, he couldn't remember the two had ever done some kind of cuddling, other than hugging perhaps, and even that was barely ever a thing outside the security of Engineer's garage. Since any kind of affection shown to the man through anything different than kissing and sex seemed out of the range of his comprehension.  
  
There was yet a lot to teach this rough man that ever so often claimed he knew anything that is to know about the simple and trivial things such as 'love'. After all, he was a Soldier. The things he needs to know is how to kill the quickest and most efficient, and of course, how to correctly break a man's neck with a single flick of his hands. But Engineer was indulgent. He possessively pulled the man a bit tighter into his embrace.  
  
“Well, do ya like this?” he asked. “That's the main question.”  
Soldier seemed to think for a bit, then, he relaxed.   
“It's pleasant, I admit. It's warm, and I feel a strange sensation of security. And it feels like my heart is beating a little faster. Engie, are you sure this spooning-baloney isn't heart-attack triggering?”  
“Can't remember Ah ever read 'bout someone gettin' a heart attack from sharin' some affection with the man they love.” Engineer smirked.  
  
“So, this is a sign of your affection then?” Soldier furrows his brows a little.  
“Mhm...” Engineer purred lazily.  
  
And after a few moments of silence, Soldier mutters a little: “You wuss.”  
  
Engineer knows Soldier doesn't mean it in an offensive way. There had been a time where he had yelled several insults at the Engineer, and meant each of them. That was before they two had fallen in love with each other. On some occasions Engineer wondered why it had taken them so long to come so close. Eight, if not ten years they had spend at Mann Co together, as nothing but colleagues. But today, every insult thrown at him was soft and nice, a little sneeringly but still he knew Soldier wouldn't hurt him purposely. No. They respected each other too much. But once in a while, the two would give each other a cocky challenge.  
  
“A wuss ya callin' me?” Engineer smirked. “Well, let's see how ya can hold up with this then!”   
“What are you---?” Soldier was quickly attacked by Engineers fingers tickling his ribs. Almost on reflex, he yelped and threw his arms up in surprise, perfect access for Engineer to tickle him under the sturdy muscles.  
“S-Stop, I—agh! That is an order!!” Soldier stammered between laughs and yelps.  
  
“C'mere, sissy!” Engineer rumbled, flipped the man over on the bed, and instantly slipped fingers under the mans shirt, rolling his fingers over the same spot he knew the Soldier was the most squeamish there. The veteran growled and whined and tried to pry his hands away from him, squirming violently under his busy hands.   
  
“THIS WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES!” Soldier shouted with tears in his eyes. “If you know what's good for you, you'll--- oh god, no, not there, _agh_!!” Soldier jerked with a jolt running through his body as Engineer found the most sensitive area on the man's body, and, surprisingly, it were his thighs. He smirked triumphantly as he teasingly squeezed and tickled them, watching the stronger man writhed and begged for Engineer to stop.   
  
“Who's the wuss here now?”  
“Y-You goddamn cheater!” Soldier croaked.  
“Who's the wuss?”  
“Nghaa—n-not me, you cow-herdin' Canadian---!”  
“Tsk, ain'tya some stubborn mule, Soldier-boy?”  
  
In the moment of wantonness, Engineer pushed the rim of the man's shirt up, exposing the well-build body of the man beneath him, buried his face into the heaving stomach, kissing his bellybutton teasingly, blowing raspberry's against his skin. Soldier gasped surprised , and arched his back slightly. The tickles subsided and grew lazy, only scratching at his torso now. He fully concentrated on the exhausted panting from the man he nuzzled, heard the yelps and whimpers turning into frustrated growls.   
  
Oh, he loved that rough dark voice snarling and growling into his skin. He loved the way Soldier was bucking his hips impatiently against him.   
“Ya givin' up?” Engineer grinned, quite out of breath himself.   
“We are just getting started, professor!”   
  
Soldier grabbed the Engineer's hips and flipped them back on the mattress, with Soldier wrapping his form against Engineer's back now, arms around his torso, legs tangled in Engineer's in what seemed a gentle gesture. But the way Soldier was grinding his hips against him, he knew he had other plans tonight .   
“I figure you like this spooning business and tickles just fine, hrrm?”  
  
Engineer flinched slightly at Soldier's fingers threading under his own shirt, striving to take it off the smaller man's chest. “Ah'm wonderin' what ya up to now?”  
“I told you, this will have consequences.” Jane smirked against his earshell and kissed it. “Or are you too much of a coward to take it?”  
“Ain't gonna complain, Solly. Ah know the danger of settin' somethin' feral free, yknow...?”  
  
And then Soldier growled again, dark and raucous and it send a tingle down his spine. “I shall remind you of that when you'll have problems _sitting_ correctly for the next few days.” Soldier snickered, and kissed his neck.

 


End file.
